A YOUNG woman driver was seriously injured today in an accident in which an articulated lorry ploughed into a house north of York.

A woman sitting in the living room of a neighbouring house had a lucky escape when the lorry stopped just feet away from her.

The accident, which happened just after 7am on the A19 at Shipton-by-Beningbrough, closed the busy road and brought traffic chaos to morning commuters.

Villagers said the accident added weight to their long-running campaign for a bypass.

The articulated lorry, which was heading towards York, collided with the car travelling in the other direction in the middle of the village.

The car, a Toyota Corolla, was badly damaged and the woman occupant was cut free by firefighters and taken to York District Hospital.

The lorry crashed into the garage of a house in Main Street. It's driver was shocked but unhurt.

Betty Hiles was sitting in the living room of the neighbouring house, just feet away, when the lorry hit.

"I was sitting in an armchair by the window when there was an almighty crash and an explosion just outside," she said.

"I opened the curtains and there was a lorry in the garden."

Husband Bill said the small garden wall at the front of the house, recently rebuilt, may have deflected the lorry and stopped it from hitting his house.

"It could have been extremely nasty," he said.

Parish Council chairman Tony Huggins said today's accident added strength to villagers' campaign for a bypass.

He said Shipton-by-Beningbrough was one of only two villages on the A19 between York and Newcastle not to have one.

"Villagers have been demanding a bypass here for more than 40 years and this accident shows just how dangerous this road can be," he said.

Mr Huggins said 35 local schoolchildren had to run the gauntlet of dodging cars and lorries on the busy road each day.

Traffic Constable Andrew Langford, of North Yorkshire police, speaking at the scene, said: "For some reason both vehicles collided in the centre of the road, resulting in the lorry ending up in the garden.

"It only narrowly missed hitting electricity pylons."

TC Langford said there was no evidence to point to excessive speed being a factor in the crash.

Big tailbacks built up during the morning while the road was cleared.