A SKIP lorry driver admitted crushing a car under an articulated lorry after not paying attention and braking too late.

Kevin Mann, 51, of Coach Road, Great Horkesley, smashed into a line of four vehicles with such force all four, including an articulated lorry, slammed forward.

A Volkswagen Golf, driven by a Miss Holt, aged 27, was pushed under a lorry on December 9 near Broad Green on the A120.

Jessica Ward, prosecuting, said: “Miss Holt has no recollection of what occurred that day.

“She is still undergoing treatment and recovering.

“She was severely affected by what happened as a direct result of Mann’s failure to properly brake his large vehicle.”

She suffered multiple injuries, including a deep laceration to her left eye, damage to the optic nerve and a fractured skull.

She fractured her left shoulder and had a plate inserted.

Another plate was inserted into a bone in her left arm and she suffered damage to two vertebrae in her back.

Colchester Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday Mann was driving from Colchester towards Coggeshall.

A line of vehicles, including a Seat Ibiza, Toyota Hilux, the articulated lorry and then Miss Holt’s Volkswagen Golf, was waiting to turn.

Mann, a driver with Colchester Skip Hire, noticed too late and smashed into the queue of traffic.

Miss Ward said: “The lorry went into the rear of the Golf and pushed it forward into the articulated lorry. It was squidged in between the two vehicles.”

Just 15 minutes earlier, there had been another crash on the same stretch of road.

Tom Gent, mitigating, said Mann was “genuinely remorseful.

He feels desperately sorry for the injuries he caused.”

Mr Gent told magistrates the temperature was 1.5 degrees celsius and there may have been ice.

Mann, who has been driving for 31 years and as a lorry driver for 22 years, was not speeding and had not been drinking.

However, evidence from a tacograph showed he braked too late in his Scania lorry.

Mann admitted one count of driving without due care and attention.

Chairman of the bench Barry Hawes said: “This accident resulted in serious injuries to Miss Holt.

“This was due to insufficient attention.”

Mann was given six penalty points and fined £350, the maximum available.

He was also ordered to pay £550 court costs and a £35 victim surcharge.

Mann was not ordered to pay compensation by magistrates because of ongoing civil proceedings.