A LORRY driver who was trapped in his cab following a four-vehicle crash has paid tribute to a traveller who stayed with him until he was freed.

Mick Norman was at the wheel of the Iveco Ford wagon involved in the pile-u, on the A166, at Holtby, near York, with another lorry and two cars.

He was released after about 45 minutes, and is still recovering from crush injuries to his left leg, a fractured thumb, and superficial cuts.

He contacted The Press to express his gratitude to the Good Samaritan after failing in his own efforts to track him down and say a personal thank you.

As reported, an articulated goods vehicle and the Iveco lorry were in collision with a Vauxhall Corsa and a Volvo saloon car on the A166, on October 4.

Firefighters had to cut Mick free while a woman was treated for neck injuries.

"I didn't see the initial crash between the two cars or the articulated vehicle," said Mick, of Flaxton.

"I had no time to react. The whole of the cab was destroyed apart from the small area where I was sat.

The cab shunted back from its original position about three to four feet."

Archbishop Holgate School student Nathan Johnston, 14, who rushed in to help the casualties using his St John Ambulance training, has been nominated for a national Young Achiever Award in recognition of his quick actions.

Mick said: "I don't want to take anything away from him. He helped me in the early stages which was a very brave thing for him to do. But the man I consider to be my true hero of the day was the one who stayed with me."

He said the man, possibly in his 40s, was beside him within seconds of the crash.

"He stayed by my side. He picked my watch up which had been ripped off in the impact and passed it back through the windscreen.

"I heard my mobile ring. It was around the time my wife, Sue, usually rings me. This poor man was searching for it underneath my wagon and the articulated lorry into which I had crashed.

"He said I can't find it, but trust me. I am a gippo, but if I had found it I would have given it to you'.

"That's how I knew he was a traveller. He said it almost apologetically but he didn't need to.

"Travellers get a lot of bad press. But the fact he stayed was so comforting and enlightening regardless of who he was.

"All I know about him was that he was in a yellow Transit van which had Landscaping' on the side. I will be forever grateful to him."