Lindsay Lohan emerged from her crumpled sports car unhurt after a collision with a tipper lorry on a coast road near Los Angeles.

The troubled actress returned to the set of her new film hours after the accident on Pacific Coast Highway yesterday. The lorry driver was also uninjured.

Sgt Richard Lewis of Santa Monica Police said there was no sign Lohan, 25, or the lorry driver was under the influence of alcohol and the force would investigate the accident to establish who was at fault. "We're treating this as a regular accident," he said.

The accident happened at around 11.40am local time as Lohan was on her way to film scenes for the Lifetime movie Liz And Dick, which chronicles the love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Her publicist Steve Honig said the actress was taken to hospital as a precaution, but was released two hours later and continued filming.

Lohan was driving with her assistant, who police said was not seriously injured.

Production on the film started earlier this week and was expected to conclude around the end of June.

Lohan is on probation over a necklace theft case, but is no longer being supervised by a judge or probation officer.

The accident is the latest driving mishap for Lohan, who lost her licence from 2008 to 2010 following a pair of drink-drive arrests. She is still being sued by three men who claim she forced them to remain in a sport utility vehicle she commandeered and used to chase a woman she thought was her assistant on Pacific Coast Highway. That incident ended in the car park of the Santa Monica Police Department, where Lohan was arrested.

Friday's accident comes after the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office determined last month there was insufficient evidence to pursue a case against Lohan over a nightclub manager's claim that she struck him with her sports car.