A WOMAN survived a collision with a 23-tonne lorry on a motorway.

The 38-year-old pedestrian had surgery for multiple injuries yesterday afternoon and was said to be in a ‘serious but stable’ condition in hospital.

Police are investigating the circumstances of the collision and how fast the Scania HGV was travelling when it collided with the woman on the M61 at Chorley.

The woman, who has not been named but is from the Greater Manchester area, suffered a broken jaw, broken cheekbone, broken arm and bruising to her legs, police said.

The lorry driver, from Skelmerdale, was not taken to hospital.

The northbound side was entirely closed for two and a half hours between junction six for Horwich and eight for Chorley following the incident at 7.15am yesterday.

It happened in the first lane, close to the exit slip road for Chorley. A spokesman for the North West Ambulance Service said: “An ambulance attended within five minutes of the alert and found a woman.

“She was attended to by paramedics before being transported to Royal Preston Hospital by ambulance.”

Drivers were diverted from junction six onto the A6 and the motorway re-opened at 9.50am.

The closure caused severe tailbacks in the Chorley area, with the A6 badly affected.

One motorist travelling to work in Blackburn said it took more than 90 minutes to travel three miles from Horwich to Adlington. He said: “It was pretty bad. I went on the A6 which runs alongside the M61 but traffic was at a standstill.”

Other commuters took to Twitter to describe the traffic chaos caused by the incident.

Aarifa Adam wrote: “Set off for work at 7.30am and still not in work. M61 closed and I’m somewhere I’m not familiar with.”

Rose Hickman added: “Set off for work at 7.35am. Still not got there yet.”

Police were yesterday investigating how the woman came to be on the motorway and appealed for witnesses to call 101.