HE stared death in the face when the 43-tonne milk truck ploughed into his house and headed straight for him.
Instead, Mr John Ashman, 55, escaped with just a broken leg when the truck stopped short of the chair in which he was sitting.
The cause of the runaway truck: Its driver had apparently choked on a lollipop and lost control of the vehicle.
The truck was carrying a full load of 25,000 litres of milk when it veered off a highway on 30 Dec.
It ploughed into three houses in Waipawa, 40km from Hastings in Hawke's Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island.
Mr Ashman's house was the third to be hit.
The first two houses were also damaged but the occupants were out so there was no other human casualties.
Mr Ashman was in his favourite chair reading a book and resting his right heel, which he had broken last February.
He told the New Zealand Herald while recuperating in hospital from his latest injuries: 'My dog Zac took off, and I wondered why.
'Then I heard it coming, a series of crashes. It kept getting closer and closer and I'm thinking, 'What do I do?' '
Mr Ashman could not run because of his broken heel.
The truck crashed through the bedroom and bathroom walls before ploughing through the hallway into the lounge and stopping short of Mr Ashman's chair.
ROOM 'EXPLODED'
The stunned man recalled: 'The room just exploded, debris and dust. Imagine a bomb site.
'I saw the grille of the truck and thought that was it. I just sat there, braced myself and waited.
'When everything stopped, I threw debris off me and leaned on the driver's door to stand up, then realised my left leg wasn't going to support my weight.
'I could see the driver was moving and figured he could look after himself. I couldn't help him. I couldn't stand.'
The impact of the truck broke a couple of bones in Mr Ashman's left leg and worsened the condition of his already-sore heel.
He rolled across the debris into the kitchen, where neighbours found him and helped him to safety.
The driver was taken to hospital with cuts and bruises.
Mr Ashman was reunited with dog and taken to a hospital where he was operated on.
Mr Ashman's sister, Ms Lynne Hulton, who lives next door, rushed home to find a massive hole had replaced the kitchen, bedroom and half the lounge.
Ms Philippa Campbell, whose house was the first to be struck, was relieved to have been away.
The Central Hawkes Bay District Council has declared the three houses unsafe and Mr Ashman's house is to be demolished tomorrow.
The landlord plans to rebuild them.
Source
I saw it come closer and then.. 
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