A driver escaped serious injury yesterday after losing control of his vehicle and careening off a West End bridge into the water.

The man - identified by a witness as Joe Ventura - lost control of his car and went through a railing of the Watford Bridge at Dockyard around 9.25 a.m. yesterday, an eyewitness told The Royal Gazette.

A female witness said she was walking her dog near her house when she saw the car go overboard.

“He said he was passed out, but it happened so quickly that I couldn't tell. He really caught my attention when he went overboard,” she said.

“My neighbour came out and called the Police. By the time we got across the street he was out of the car already. It was something out of the ordinary. Thank God he wasn't hurt badly.”

The witness said the man, who appeared to be in his 50s, could not climb the embankment to get out of the water. Instead, he sat on the “top of the bottom of the car” which was upside down in the water.

“He was in shock. He was still pretty much out of it. I don't know if he hit his head on something,” she said.

The woman said that eight Police cars and Marine Police arrived on the scene “pretty quickly” to rescue the man from the car and the car was removed from the water by crane.

The man was taken to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.

The man told Police that he began to feel faint and soon lost control of his car which resulted in the car going through the railing and over the bridge.

A Police spokesperson refused to comment on the man's identity.