TwitterA driver has been rescued from the Coomera River after his truck veered off the M1 and ended up in the water on Queensland’s northern Gold Coast.

The accident happened in the northbound lane of the freeway shortly after 6:00am.

Police said the crane truck smashed through a guardrail and into the water below.

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Passerby Jason called the ABC from the scene.

“We were going for a morning run and heard this almighty crash,” he said.

“A guy who saw it actually stopped his ute and went in and pulled the guy out of the truck.

“We just knew straight away it was a semi and ran back to see the guy in the water pulling the driver out and swimming back to shore.”

A Queensland Ambulance spokeswoman said the driver had cuts to his head and hip pain.

The crash caused heavy congestion and at one stage traffic was banked up to Helensvale.