A MAN who suffered serious injuries when his car smashed into a tank beside the A64 on the outskirts of York said today he may take legal action against the Army.

Web designer and photographer Dave Farrow, 44, is continuing to receive treatment in York Hospital after his car collided with the stationary military recovery vehicle near Fulford.

He told the Evening Press today that he would "take it as far as I can" to try and seek redress for his injuries, which include a punctured lung, broken ribs, facial injuries and severe bruising.

Mr Farrow, of Huntington, York, said he wanted to investigate the legality of driving a tracked vehicle on a dual carriageway in the middle of the night.

He said that a group of soldiers in the vehicle said they had broken down as they travelled to an exercise in woodland near Stamford Bridge.

He said: "Why didn't they have a warning triangle, a flag or anything to say there was a 40-tonne piece of metal in the road?"

Mr Farrow's Citroen ZX car was written off and an Army Samson CVRT vehicle was damaged in the incident near Fulford interchange on the A64 eastbound carriageway.

Police closed the road for several hours after the crash which involved Territorial Army soldiers of the Queen's Own Yeomanry, based at Fulford.

An Army spokesman said today that the Army would co-operate fully with any civil or criminal legal action that came as a result of the incident.

He denied that the armoured vehicle had broken down. He said the soldiers had been involved in the recovery of another vehicle before the crash.

Updated: 08:23 Wednesday, March 12, 2003