This is the shocking moment a crane truck toppled over into a canal after dodging an oncoming car in Thailand.

CCTV footage shows the two vehicles approaching each other on opposite lanes of a narrow road before the slowly lost balance on the ditch in Chachoengsao province on April 8.

Truck driver Thongsuk Lookchan, 36, immediately opened the door and jumped out of the vehicle as truck sank onto the canal with dirty water.

Thongsuk said he tried to evade the silver sedan but his one of his wheels fell which caused the vehicle to lose balance and overturn.

He said: ‘I had to move to the edge because I will hit the car but when I did I fell onto the canal instead. My wheel was caught in the ditch.’

The rescue team arrived and brought another crane truck to pull the heavy vehicle from the canal. The rescue crane took 16 hours to arrive in the area as the roads were too narrow.

When the crane arrived, it only took half an hour to pull the truck out of the ditch and the driver thanked the rescue team.

Local police who arrived at the scene to investigate said the road in the area was damaged so they already informed the officials to repair it to avoid accidents in the future.

Police Major General Suwat Sangnoom said: ‘This was not the first time that a vehicle fell into the canal due to the road being too narrow. We will inform the highway officials again so they can have it widened.’