A LORRY driver has been described by an eyewitness as "lucky to be alive" after his vehicle skidded on black ice and ploughed into the side of a Highland cottage.

Kireen Johnston, 46, had just arrived for work yesterday at the Spar shop in Carrbridge, Invernessshire, when she heard a massive crashing noise outside.

Ms Johnston ran outside to find a truck embedded in a house across the road, but the driver had escaped injury and was suffering from shock.

She said: "He's very lucky to be alive. We're just across the road and I was here at the time, but I just heard the noise, I didn't see it.

"It was some bang. I was already awake obviously, but it was early in the morning, so it certainly made sure I was properly awake."

Ms Johnston added: "Somehow he didn't even have a mark on him.

"He wasn't saying a lot, but he said he was really thankful that he wasn't carrying a passenger as obviously it was the passenger's side that was hit."

Cottage owner Steve Hanshaw learned the bad news about the damage from the police by phone. But Ms Johnston said there was nothing the driver could have done to avoid disaster as the village roads were covered in black ice.

She said: "The lorry's demolished quite a bit of the house. They've now removed the lorry and there appears to be a lot of rubble. It could have been much, much worse."