Lorry flips on bridge and held by tyre from 200' drop

Miraculous escape after lorry flips over on bridge and is held upside down over 200ft drop... by a single punctured tyre

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 3:44 PM on 5th January 2011

The driver of this lorry had a miraculous escape after his vehicle was left suspended over a 200ft drop... by a single punctured tyre.

The man lost control of his vehicle along a major road, clipped the concrete wall of a bridge and the heavy lorry rolled over as it slid perilously close to the edge.

A passerby caught the moment on camera as the momentum of the lorry carried it into the barrier and flipped it over the top.

Miracle escape: Rescuers line the sides of the bridge after the lorry flipped upside down and rolled over the barrier to end suspended upside down

But thanks to the punctured tyre and pieces of torn sheet metal on the ground near the diesel tank, the lorry was somehow pinned in place suspended upside down over the deep gorge below.

Rescuers tentatively approached the vehicle and managed to pull the driver to safety, despite the fact the tyre could have given way at any time.

The barriers on the bridge are clearly too low to be an effective safety measure for lorries and it is unknown if the vehicle was recovered, or allowed to fall into the gorge.

Lucky man: A punctured tyre - nearest the camera - and pieces of sheet metal left on the road are all that stopped the lorry and its driver from a 200ft drop

The pictures, which circulated over a year ago on the internet, have just emerged within China which has strict bans on internet use.

Last year, another lorry driver had a lucky escape when the container on his vehicle hit the underside of a bridge and catapulted the cab nose first into the bridge in Changchun city.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344262/Lorry-flips-bridge-held-upside-200ft-drop-China.html#ixzz1AHydB7mF