A MAN responsible for a head-on smash in which a driver broke his leg has been ordered to do 120 hours' community work and banned from driving for a year.

Andrew Carver, 34, took a bend too fast in his four-wheel drive Mitsubishi and collided with a Citroen car being driven in the opposite direction.

The accident on the A684 near Aiskew, Northallerton, North Yorkshire, threw the Citroen into the air and into a lampost.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the driver, who suffered a broken leg, had to be cut from the wreckage of his car by firefighters, while Carver's Mitsubishi ended up stuck in a nearby hedge.

Prosecuting, David Lamb said Carver was arrested by police following the crash on February 26 this year and later admitted a charge of dangerous driving.

He had been driving at 60mph in what was a 50mph zone, said Mr Lamb.

Christine Egerton, for Carver, of Newton Crescent, Leeming, near Northallerton, said he had a split-second lapse of judgement and lost control of his car. He was a responsible man with a good job, she said.

Judge Tony Briggs said: "It is quite clear that you got it awfully wrong on this occasion and were driving too fast."

The judge also banned Carver from driving for a year and ordered him to pay £350 in costs.