A YOUNG family is lucky to be alive after a lorry rammed their car which had broken down on the hard shoulder of the motorway.

Donna Charnock, 31, and her three children were sitting inside the car when the heavy goods vehicle hurtled by at 70 miles per hour ripping all the panelling off the doors and shattering the windows.

Her partner John Maguire, 35, had his head under the bonnet and was inspecting the engine.

Donna said: "I had just told the children to take their seat belts off as we were going to go and stand on the grass.

"As I said it, a huge lorry rammed into us on the side of the car. It kept going for three or four hundred yards, stopped on the hard shoulder, then started backing up.

"I got out and had a few harsh words with the driver who he said he didn't see us."

Donna said her children were screaming and have been traumatised by the incident.

The bonnet had crashed down on John's head, concussing him, and Donna was left with back trouble and whiplash.

The children, Gemma, nine, Jordan, six, and Rebecca five, received cuts and bruises from glass when the windows were shattered. The shocked group were taken to hospital for treatment.

Donna, of Ullswater Avenue, Chorley, added: "The whole of the windows on the side of the car just smashed and the lorry ripped all the panelling off the doors and windows. He had dragged the back door into the front door.

"The police said we were really lucky. If he had hit us from the back . . . "

Donna said she just sat dazed in the car for 30 seconds after the terrifying ordeal. The car, an E-reg Nissan Bluebird, was written off.

"We're very lucky to be alive," she said.

"I would urge lorry drivers to take care on the roads because they can cause devastation to families."

The accident happened on the northbound carriageway of the motorway near Stoke.

John, of Lakeland Gardens, Chorley, was driving the family home following a holiday in Devon when the car broke down. He had just called for the break-down services when the accident happened.

The Central Motorway Police Group are investigating and say they are awaiting reports before deciding whether it is necessary to take action against the lorry driver.