A LORRY driven by a Huddersfield man ploughed into stationary traffic on a motorway, leaving a couple seriously hurt, a court heard yesterday.

The driver, Andrew Raynor Smith, 44, was said to have had a momentary lapse of concentration and did not notice the traffic queuing to leave the northbound carriageway of the A1M at Letchworth, Hertfordshire.

His Volvo lorry, being driven at over 50mph, hit a Rover car driven by Mr Michael Lake.

It was sent 58 metres along the road and crashed into the central reservation.

Mr Lake suffered a fractured shoulder blade, fractured ribs, a broken nose, concussion and cuts and bruises, St Albans Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Sarah Porter said Mr Lake's wife, Ann, remembered little of the crash, but woke up in the Luton and Dunstable Hospital to be told she had lost an eye and had a broken nose.

After hitting the Rover the lorry continued along the carriageway, causing serious damage to a Peugeot and a BMW.

Raynor Smith of Moor Lane, Netherton, appeared for sentence, having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to driving dangerously on July 18 last year.

The court was told he had nine points on his licence - six for two speeding offences and three for a traffic signal offence.

He was of previous good character.

Defence barrister Shona Rogers said Raynor Smith showed "utter remorse" for what happened.

She said he had had a momentary lapse of concentration.

She added that he was now working as a warehouseman.

Recorder Nicholas Blake QC said: "He applied his brakes very late and it is very fortunate Mrs Lake was not killed."

The judge said he was taking into consideration Raynor Smith's genuine remorse and passed a 36-week jail sentence, suspended for two years.

He ordered him to complete 75 hours unpaid community work, banned him from driving for three years and ordered him to pay £250 costs.