Two men walked away unscathed after their car veered off a busy Moray road to avoid a load of fencing materials which fell from the lorry in front of them.
The vehicle swerved off the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road and landed on its roof just inches from a tree.
The windscreen of the burgundy Toyota Land Cruiser 4×4 was completely shattered and the bodywork extensively damaged, but neither of the occupants suffered serious injuries.
One local said the pair had had “a lucky escape”.
The accident happened on the outskirts of Elgin as the vehicles were heading towards the town around 8am.
A police spokesman said: “A lorry shed its load and a car swerved off the road as a result.”
He added that both men had been left considerably “shaken up” by the incident.
Paramedics were sent to the scene, but neither the driver nor his passenger needed to be taken to hospital.
The accident initially caused a tailback all the way to Alves about a mile away, as well as a backlog of traffic into Elgin.
A police van temporarily blocked one side of the busy carriageway, as officers directed vehicles around the crash site.
The Toyota was taken away by a recovery vehicle later yesterday morning.
It is understood the lorry driver was spoken to at the scene by police officers.
However, police have not said yet whether a report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal in connection with the incident.
Councillor Douglas Ross, who chairs Moray Council’s police scrutiny committee, said: “It sounds as though the two men had a very lucky escape.
“The A96 can be a particularly dangerous road, especially during the peak hours of getting to and from work.”
An Elgin woman died last month following an accident about two miles away on the A96.
Kerri MacDonald, 28, was in a silver Ford Ka which was involved in a three-vehicle accident on the west side of Alves.
The accident led to calls from residents for speed cameras to be introduced along the A96 between Forres and Elgin.