A truck driver rescues a woman who fell from a bridge on Auckland’s South Motorway.

“He looked up and saw her hanging there. “He slowed to about 10 km/h before she fell.”

The spokesman said there was only about 7.5cm of clearance between the top of the container and the bridge.

“It pushed her into the back of the truck and to the side. That’s a pretty high height to fall from,” he said.

“If they had fallen onto the back of the truck, they would have gotten stuck between the lift arms and the container and decapitated themselves.

“Luckily he stopped before they got there and then she fell on her side and fell to the ground.”

The spokesman said the driver returned to work the next day.

“He was a little upset about it all and the surroundings. “Eventually he just said he didn’t work that day because it all got too much for him.”

The spokesman said the company had fielded several calls from customers concerned that the truck might have hit the bridge and caused a highway closure, but that was not the case.

“We had a few clients call us that day to make sure we weren’t in trouble, and when they found out it was a story, it wasn’t a problem.”

The spokesman said the driver’s actions to reduce speed saved the woman’s life.

NZTA Waka Kotahi said all lanes of State Highway 1 between the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and the South Eastern Highway were initially closed “due to a serious incident”.

At one point, Google Maps showed traffic was heavily congested, with southbound return vehicles passing Spaghetti Junction towards the Auckland Harbor Bridge.

Subscribe to Daily HA free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.