A truck driver managed to free himself after his log truck rolled over on the Hume Highway near Bowning on Monday, police say.

The semi-trailer rollover also caused about 600 litres of diesel to spill onto the road and forced the closure of one lane on the Hume Highway.

Police said the driver from Tumut “incredibly” freed himself from the truck and was taken to Canberra Hospital suffering severe injuries to his lower right leg.

A nurse travelling in the opposite direction pulled over to render assistance.

Fire and Rescue teams from Yass, Goulburn and Harden were called to the accident west of Yass about 11am.

Fire and Rescue deputy captain Scott Lang said he didn’t know how the accident happened but that about 600 litres of fuel had been spilled in the rollover.

“We are waiting on a specialist Hazmat appliance from Goulburn to come down and give us a hand to decant what is left [of the diesel] and do a vehicle recovery with the assistance of the contractors … so we will be here for some-time until we can … flip the truck back over, clean up what is left and hand it back to the Rural Fire Service,” Mr Lang said.

Traffic was slowed in the area but one lane of the highway remained open.