Fire corporal Park Jun-hyeon (wearing white helmet) holds the hands of the unnamed driver to prevent him from falling off the bridge. (Yonhap)

An emergency rescue worker saved a truck driver from an 11-meter fall by holding onto the driver for 45 minutes with his bare hands, officials of the Gyeongbuk Fire Service Headquarters said Thursday.

The accident occurred Wednesday at around 9:29 a.m. on a bridge on a section of the Joongang Expressway in Poongsang-eup, Andong, North Gyeongsang Province. A truck slid on the snow-covered road and collided with the railings, the impact of which almost threw the driver in his 60s out of his seat and off the bridge.

Minutes later, fire corporal Park Jun-hyeon, 34, and other members of the 119 emergency rescue service in Poongsan arrived on the scene, and found the driver hanging perilously from what remained of the driver's seat.

The damage to the car made it impossible for the workers to open its doors, and the rescue workers did not have sufficient space to conduct a rescue operation. All Park could do was make sure the driver did not fall by holding onto his hands.

Park held the driver by his hands for 45 minutes, and did not dare switch places with other workers out of fear that they may lose the driver. He calmed the panicked driver while holding onto him until other rescue workers brought a vehicle with an aerial platform to rescue the driver.

The driver was rescued at around 10:30 a.m.