Police say a Hawke's Bay man's lucky to be alive after an Jim Beam bottle was hurled at his car.

It smashed through his windscreen late last night as he was driving on the local expressway.

Police think the empty bottle was thrown by someone travelling the other way.

Officers say it was reckless to the extreme.

Glass sprayed throughout the car, and the man - a baker on his way to work, was hit as well in the shoulder.

Police say he's very shaken, and the person who threw the bottle could've killed him.

The bottle's been taken for forensic testing.