Two Sussex women say they are lucky to be alive after a 35-tonne lorry demolished their car and plunged 60ft off a motorway flyover.

Their car is a mangled wreck but the two friends escaped with just cuts and bruises.

Emergency services feared the pair were seriously injured and drafted in a huge team of specialist doctors and a helicopter after the lorry slammed into their broken-down car on a bridge before plummeting on to a busy dual carriageway below.

Toni Lamb, from Lancing, and Jeannie Rumble, from Sompting, spent an hour trapped in the crumpled wreckage.

The Dutch-registered lorry landed on its left side and police say the driver, who walked away with minor injuries, only survived because the European vehicle was unusually a right-hand drive.

Massage therapist Mrs Rumble, 50, who is today recovering at her home, said: "When I came round in the car I had no clear recollection of where I was or what had happened. It is only just beginning to sink in how incredibly lucky we are to be alive. It has made me realise how transient life is."

The friends were heading for a day out at the Blue Water shopping centre when Miss Lamb's Vauxhall Tigra cut out on an elevated section of the M25 above the A2 dual carriageway near Dartford.

There was no hard shoulder so Miss Lamb, 49, pulled over to the side of the slow lane, put her hazard lights on and called the recovery services.

The lorry slammed into the car as they waited and the force of the collision caused the pair to pass out.

The lorry hit so hard that when they came round they had swapped seats.

Miss Lamb, of Lancing College Drive, said: "The car had spun round and was facing the oncoming traffic and I thought we were going to die.

"The fire brigade were knocking on the window. I could see blood dropping down on to my sweatshirt and I thought I had split my head open.

"Jeannie was still unconscious and I remember thinking I had killed my friend."

The lorry smashed through a crash barrier and fell on to the busy A2 beneath but missed passing cars.

Firefighters cut off the roof of the car to free the two women.

Miss Lamb, who works as a training officer, said: "The ambulance men said we had been very lucky and the surgeon said he couldn't believe it - we should have been dead.

"How the truck driver walked out of hospital with a few cuts and bruises is beyond me but I am glad he is alive.

"I believe in fate and I am starting to believe somebody was looking after the three of us that day."