A LORRY driver has revealed how it took three days to pick windscreen glass out of his body after he was involved in a horror smash on the A69.

On November 4, Robert Hogg (46), of Spennymoor, County Durham, had a coughing fit while driving on the road near Haydon Bridge, causing him to collide with another truck travelling in the opposite direction.

As a result of the accident, he suffered severe injuries including lacerations to his arm and head, a collapsed lung, six broken ribs, swelling on the side of this head, a haematoma in his right leg, cuts on his stomach and three broken metatarsal bones.

He was also left partially blind in his right eye.

Mr Hogg said: "I was delivering feed and I had what some people call man flu.

"About halfway through coughing, I can’t remember anything. There was a bright light, then I woke up and I remember the roof was off the cab."

A doctor and paramedic from the Great North Air Ambulance Service arrived in a rapid response vehicle and worked alongside the North East Ambulance Service to assess and treat Robert's injuries.

He was transferred to the RVI in Newcastle where he remained for two weeks. It took three days to remove all the shattered windscreen glass from his body.

Robert added: "If the air ambulance weren’t there I might have died. These guys saved my life.

"The expertise and experience they have is so much more than the paramedics on a land ambulance."

Following the incident, Robert's brother, Joe McKimm, held a raffle draw and raised £300 for the air ambulance service. Robert and Joe presented the cheque to the air ambulance service during a recent visit to the GNAAS base at Durham Tees Valley Airport.