A courageous motorist has described how he helped rescue a lorry driver whose vehicle overturned at the M5 junction for Stroud.

“I won’t forget that day in a hurry,” said Jim Gardner, who had been travelling behind the lorry before it flipped onto the driver’s side near junction 13 on the morning of Wednesday, October 24.

“I managed to hit the brakes just as the lorry slid out in front of me.

“I pulled onto the verge. As I was running towards him, the sight of the scene hit me.

“He was in a bad way.

“His head was out of the window and he was stuck in the door frame shaking.

“The engine was still running and diesel was spraying everywhere - I knew I had to get him out for the medics immediately.”

Luckily, Mr Gardner had some tools in his campervan because he was coming back from a motocross event in Dursley with his nine-year-old son Logan.

His son stayed put as Mr Gardner returned to the lorry with a hammer, intent on breaking the windshield.

“It was a lot harder than I first thought - the glass was extremely thick.

“I had to smash holes one at a time in the hope of creating a bigger opening.

“And, when I could, I put the driver’s florescent jacket over him so he wouldn’t get hit by any shards of glass.”

Emergency services soon arrived at the scene, with police cordoning off the M5 slip road and A419.

Once the engine was turned off, the driver was taken to Southmead Hospital by air ambulance where he remains in a stable condition.

When Mr Gardner returned to his motorhome, he says his son asked: “Dad, why are you shaking?”

“It was only then did I realise just how much adrenaline was pumping inside me - I explained to my son what ‘fight or flight’ is.

“And with all the fuel spraying I was afraid it would catch fire.”

Mr Gardner then left the scene to make space on the verge for incoming fire engines.

He says an officer told him afterwards: “You’re like Batman - you were there, then you were gone.”

Although police finished their investigation of the scene by the end of the day, the A419 remained closed until Friday.

The lorry, which had ended up blocking the side of the A419 heading towards the M5, had damaged the road as it went down.

Gloucestershire County Council carried out emergency road resurfacing.

Mr Gardner and Logan live in Brackley, Northamptonshire and got in touch with the SNJ via Facebook a few days after the accident to check on the driver.

Logan was the 2018 Severn Valley motocross champion and runner-up in the British schoolboy championship.