The driver, a 46-year-old Sleaford man, had to be freed from his cab and was taken to Boston's Pilgrim Hospital with cuts to his face and fingers and a shoulder injury.

He was driving the DAF articulated lorry north through Tattershall Bridge when it left the road and collided with a bus stop and an electricity pole at 12.45am.

It then smashed through a conifer hedge, clipped the house and hit the side of a car parked in the drive before it came to a halt.

Kenneth Stewart, 76, the owner of the house on the main road through Tattershall Bridge, said: "I was woken by a huge bang and a flash of light which I presume was the electricity pole.

"It sounded like ball lightning. That's what came into my head.

"I came downstairs and there was nothing amiss inside but I went outside and there was a lorry in my garden and a bloke inside looking rather dazed."

Mr Stewart said one of his neighbours must have called the police as the emergency services were on the scene straight away.

He praised volunteers from the Red Cross who took care of him through the night while workers recovered the lorry and restored power supplies.

The road was closed until 7am and people living nearby were without power until roughly the same time.

Mr Stewart said: "I'm OK. It's just the loss of a night's sleep and the nuisance of it all. It was a rather rude awakening."

"The last thing you want is a lorry in your garden. You can see the funny side of it now but it wasn't funny at the time."