A driver escaped serious injury after losing control of his car and careering nearly 200 yards off the road and over a railway track in Staffordshire.

The 51-year-old was cut free from the wreckage of his Volvo estate by fire crews after it left the road and travelled across the rail line.

It happened on the A51 London Road at Weston, near Stafford, close to the junction with the A518 at around 9.30 last night.

The car knocked out a traffic light at the junction before coming off the road and plunging through a field and a stream full of water.

It then damaged the overhead cables of the railway and crashed through a fence before stopping on its roof in the neighbouring field.

The driver was taken to hospital with a head injury, back and abdominal pain.

Fire crews then had to rescue two of their own engines stuck in the muddy field.

The railway line was closed while experts surveyed the damage to the overhead cable and removed debris from the track.