A builder watched in horror as his lorry rolled down a hill and smashed into a house.

He ran after it but as he tried to clamber into the cab, the runaway truck struck a wall, throwing him over it.

The man hit his head and twisted his knee and, as he watched helplessly, the lorry continued under a railway bridge in Hollingdean Road, Brighton, towards a row of houses.

It knocked over a white metal pole on the corner of the street and smashed into a telegraph pole at about 40mph.

It bounced off a house and swerved to the right into Hughes Road, following a car whose driver had to speed up to escape.

The vehicle lost momentum and crashed into a house next to a building site in Hollingdean Road.

Wooden hoardings stopped the lorry from crashing through towards workmen.

The self-employed builder had been loading the lorry, which was parked 20 yards from the railway bridge in Hollingdean Lane, Brighton, when it started rolling down the road at 9.20am on Saturday.

Sussex University student Alice Banfield, who lives just along from the damaged house, said: "I was making a cup of tea when I heard a huge crash.

"I looked out the window and saw the telegraph pole had come down, then saw the lorry. It's really lucky no one was hurt.

"Normally its very busy here. If it had been at 9am on a weekday there would have been loads of traffic."

Dave Salvage, who runs D Salvage Buildings, which is working on the nearby building site, said: "The driver said as he saw the lorry rolling down the hill all he thought about was the public and that someone might get hurt.

"Luckily the telegraph pole and the hoardings broke the speed of the lorry or it could have been a lot worse. It probably saved people's lives as it could have gone on to the building site or down to Lewes Road."

The builder was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, but released later.

Dan Pattenden, of Hove Road Policing Unit said: "The lorry has air brakes and we will be testing them.

"A car driver saw it coming towards her and turned up Hughes Road but it followed her.

"She said she'd never driven so fast in her life, but luckily the lorry didn't hit her."