A worker narrowly avoided being crushed by a half-tonne water tank that fell while being lifted onto a truck.

CCTV footage shows the man standing behind the heavy metal object as he assisted a driver in transferring it onto the truck bed in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, southern Thailand, on January 5.

However, the driver appeared to have misjudged the distance and carried on reversing - causing the tank and metal frame to collapse.

The quick-thinking worker scampered backwards and dodged being pinned to the ground by the 500kg tank.

Bizarrely, the bungling driver forgot to pull the handbrake when he left the carriage and the vehicle kept rolling backwards - hitting the worker again.

The man pulled himself up and dusted himself down but he went to the hospital for treatment for a wound on his leg and demanded the driver pay for the costs.

Onlooker Paphatsara said: ‘The heavy tanker rolled down. He had an injury but no bones were broken. He had stitches for a cut from the accident.'