The man who survived a horrific highway crash on Friday morning says he knew all along that he would live through the accident.

Adrian Glowacki, a civil engineer, was trapped in his Mazda3 for 90 minutes after the car was crushed beneath an 18-wheeler.

Speaking to CTV Montreal's Daniele Hamamdjian from his hospital bed, Glowacki described how clearly he recalls the spectacular crash -- which happened on his 29th birthday.

It was just before 11:30 a.m. and he was driving on the eastbound side of Highway 20, on his way to visit his mother.

As he switched from the centre lane to the right lane, he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw a truck behind him.

He stepped on the brakes when he saw an 18-wheeler slowing down ahead of him.

"That's when the shock came, almost instantaneously. It was so fast," he said.

Glowacki had been hit by the truck behind him, and pinned underneath the 18-wheeler in front of him.

"Slowly the fumes and the liquids of my car -- or maybe the truck -- started to drip on me and started to burn my skin...my face, my arms, and my legs," Glowacki said.

He cried out for help and a man, whom he believes was one of the truck drivers, rushed over to him.

"He didn't believe I was there. He asked me if I was alone and I said yes. He said 'Listen, do you want to call somebody?' I guess he figured based on what he saw that I might not make it."

Glowacki called his wife Marguerite, who recalls fearing the worst.

"He just told me that he loved me, that was it," she said tearfully. "I thought he wasn't going to make it."

But Glowacki pulled through, leaving rescuers in awe and calling his survival a "miracle".

The accident left Glowacki with burns to his face, a broken arm and a broken spine.

Glowacki remembers thinking of his young children -- a two-year-old and a six-month-old -- when he was trapped inside the car.

"I was keeping high hopes. I knew I had to get out for my children," he said, adding that he believes a guardian angel is watching over him.