A BATTLING Bolton HGV driver is back behind the wheel of his beloved lorry - less than three months after severing his arm, hand and leg with a chainsaw in a freak garden accident.

Dave Longson, aged 27, a driver for Westhoughton-based logistics company Taylor's of Martley, received 200 stitches in his wounds during a three-hour operation at a specialist plastic surgery unit.

He was using the chainsaw to remove an overgrown tree from a colleague's garden when the rotten trunk collapsed and sent him tumbling onto the blades.

Dave said: "Everything when black, then I saw three wounds, on one I could see the tendons, on another the muscle and on a third the bone. The blade had also cut through an artery."

He was eventually pulled free as more branches crashed down but surgeons warned he would never recover.

Now, after 10 weeks of intense physiotherapy, he is back on the road, to the amazement of his Bolton boss.

Contracts manager Mark Pearson said: "We couldn't believe it when Dave walked in, saying he wanted to return so soon after the accident.

"I was on the way to watch Bolton Wanderers with my son when I got a call saying he'd be off the following week. When I found out why I thought I'd never see him at work again."

Dave was taken to Warrington General Hospital after the accident last September. He still needs a cream-soaked plastic bandage to dress his wounds but medics have passed him fit to work.

"I couldn't stop at home and just watch daytime television when I was fit enough to work," he added.

And his girlfriend Vickie, aged 30, added: "The surgeons said they had never seen such serious chainsaw injuries, but he seems to think it's nothing special."

Dave, from Cadishead, has worked with the 60-year-old firm since August 1996 after passing his Class 1 HGV examinations.

THUMBS UP: HGV driver Dave Longson looks forward to getting back behind the wheel