A MOTORIST was badly hurt when his car hit a Territorial Army tank parked beside the A64 after dark, a court heard.

Web designer and photographer Dave Farrow, 44, of Huntington, suffered broken ribs, a broken breastbone and a punctured lung and his Citroen ZX was written off in the midnight accident with the camouflaged tank on the outskirts of York.

Selby magistrates heard that Andrew Dixon, 41, of Middlethorpe Grove, Dringhouses, was driving the Army Samson tracked vehicle which stopped on the hard shoulder of the A64 on March 8.

The tank was among a group of army vehicles travelling in convoy and being driven by Territorial Army soldiers of the Queen's Own Yeomanry, based at Fulford.

Steve Ovenden, prosecuting, said the tank did have lights, but they were very small, and Mr Farrow did not see them.

Dixon pleaded guilty by letter to stopping on a road designated as a clearway. He was fined £280, with £45 court costs.

In his letter he said that on the night of the crash, an army vehicle driving towards the rear of the convoy had suffered fuel starvation problems and had stopped near to the Grimston Bar roundabout.

He said that he stopped 50 metres behind, on a straight stretch of carriageway, displaying normal lights with hazard warning lights active. The tank was also fitted with reflectors.

Dixon said that his other option would have been to move off the carriageway and on to a grass verge, but the vehicle was driven by tracks and this would have caused considerable damage to the kerb and verge.

Debris would then have been carried along by the tracks, causing hazards to other road users, particularly motorcycles.

A group of Territorial Army soldiers, including Dixon, were inside the tank at the time of the crash.

None of the soldiers, based at Imphal Barracks, in Fulford, suffered injuries and they were able to call for help on their mobile phones.

Police closed the road for several hours after the crash, while soldiers used a similar vehicle to tow the damaged tank to Imphal Barracks.

Updated: 14:14 Wednesday, July 16, 2003