A bitter December morning in 1962 brought a stark reminder of winter’s dangers to lanes near Frensham, when a Grayshott lorry driver survived a crash later described as a Christmas miracle.

Peter Sudnik, a timber contractor with 20 years’ experience behind the wheel, was travelling before dawn on December 20 when his Bedford lorry struck an unseen sheet of ice near Frensham School.

Moments later, the seven-ton vehicle left the road and plunged nose-first into a deep ditch. The impact sent nine tons of timber surging forward from the rear, crushing the cab “like a matchbox”.

Onlookers who stopped later that morning were astonished to find Mr Sudnik alive. He climbed from the wreckage dazed and bruised but without serious injury. Police later said the collapse of the steering wheel forward with him may have saved his life.

Mr Sudnik, who lived in Grayshott, had just begun a long journey to Stourbridge, Worcestershire, to deliver timber. After passing Frensham Pond, he encountered what he later described as an “extensive patch of ice”, leaving both brakes and steering useless.

“I didn’t realise how bad it was,” he recalled at the time. “When the lorry went out of control, I didn’t know what was happening.”

After regaining consciousness on the grass beside the wreckage, Mr Sudnik telephoned police and was taken to Farnham General Hospital. He was treated and allowed home later that morning — in time to be home for Christmas.

The icy conditions caught out others that day. Mr Sudnik’s wife, rushing to the scene after receiving a call from her husband, narrowly avoided a similar accident when her car skidded across the road.

As rain later cleared the ice, a passing milkman summed up the mood among those who saw the wreckage. “He got out of that one alive,” he said.

Another lorry driver added: “He must be the luckiest man alive this Christmas.”