An Addingham student crashed her father’s Freelander into a car being driven by a semi-professional cricketer, leaving him badly injured and out of action for the season, heard Skipton magistrates.

Laura Jones, 25, who was banned from driving for four months and fined £400, collided with Mr Halnshaw after losing control of the Freelander while overtaking a lorry on the A59 at Beamsley on November 20.

Jones, who had been on her way to college in Harrogate at around 8.30am, just managed to squeeze in between the lorry and an articulated wagon coming the other way, the court heard on Friday.

A witness said how it had been ‘very close’ and that both lorries had to brake before the Freelander went out of control and hit the other car, the court heard.

Mr Halnshaw, in a statement read out in court, described how he had believed his right arm had been broken from the impact and how he had crawled out of the car through the passenger door.

He was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to the Leeds General Infirmary where he spent five days being treated for a shattered wrist, broken arm and badly sprained ankle.

The court heard he had only recently returned to work as a financial adviser, five months after the accident, would need further operations and would be unable to play in the current cricket season.

Jones, of Hodgson Fold, who had admitted driving without due care and attention at the earliest possible opportunity by letter to court, had a clean driving licence with no convictions, the court heard.

She made the journey to Harrogate around three times a week, had not been driving at excessive speed, but had made a momentary misjudgement, of which she could remember nothing, possibly because of an injury to the back of her head.

Magistrate David Uffindall told Jones it had been a very serious accident on a road the bench were all familiar, with excessive damage caused to vehicles and to another driver.

“At this time in the morning, it would have been busy and we see people on it frankly doing very serious things. We see that it was a misjudgement, but it was serious,” he said.

He added they had stepped back from ordering her to retake her test after the end of her ban because of her previous good driving record.

She will also have to pay costs of £85 and victims surcharge of £40.