A STARTLED householder has told how a van careered out of control and crashed into his back garden.

Keith Smith was in the garden in Church Close, Thornaby, when the van veered across the road, down an embankment and slammed into his garden wall, yards from where he was standing.

The six-wheeled delivery van drove onto the wrong side of Thornaby Road, yards from the junction with the A66, just before 7.30am. It then crashed through some trees, across Church Close, and into Mr Smith's back garden.

Mr Smith said: "I thought I was dead for a moment. I was stood exactly where the front tyre ended up.

"I have never moved so fast in my life. Thankfully I managed to run out of the way, but for a couple of moments I thought it was never going to stop."

The driver, from Rochdale, Lancashire, had fallen ill at the wheel, and was taken to the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton.

The white Ford van belongs to a Bradford-based hire company.

Kevin Jones, leading firefighter at Thornaby fire station, said: "It seems the driver lost consciousness in some way before the accident.

"When we arrived at the scene it looked like he had taken quite a battering."

The driver, who has not been named, was questioned by police yesterday afternoon.