A LORRY driver from Todmorden was airlifted to hospital after a dramatic five-hour rescue operation when his 38-ton vehicle was left dangling over a 100 feet drop in mid Wales.

A crane was brought in to haul the Woolworths lorry free before firefighters cut Robert Briggs, 46, of Cambridge Street, from the wreckage.

His Volvo cab had been crushed by the overturned trailer unit after the lorry smashed through a crash barrier on the A44 trunk road near Llangurig, Powys, yesterday.

The lorry rolled 30 feet down a slope and was left suspended above a further 100 feet drop.

The lorry had been on its way to make a delivery at the Woolworth store at Aberystwyth. It is believed one of the tyres blew on the hillside road.

Firefighters used cutting equipment to release Mr Briggs after logs had been used to support the lorry after it was lifted by the crane.

He was then flown by air ambulance to the trauma unit at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, 80 miles from the accident scene.

His condition was today described as "comfortable".

Harold Bates, a duty officer with the charity County Air Ambulance, said: "It was a painstaking job because the trailer had to be moved a bit at a time while we tended to the driver in the cab.

"We were called out at 9am and it was 12.16pm before he was released.

"We went through six bottles of oxygen mixture in that time to try to relieve some of the pain.

"He had a broken wrist and had broken both his legs.

"He was conscious and talking to us all of the time during the rescue but he was in a state of shock."

The trunk road was closed for ten hours.

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