Army tank runs amok

It was a scene straight out of a nightmare. Driver Paul Taylor could only watch helplessly as a 20-ton armoured Army vehicle began slowly crushing his car – with him still in it.

The 42-year-old, who hails from Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, was expecting the machine to stop as it came trundling towards him at a busy junction, but was left terrified when it veered out of control and began trampling his Citroen BX.

The personnel carrier was being driven by a trainee soldier and was displaying L-plates when one of the operating controls jammed and it mounted the bonnet of the father-of-three's Citroen BX. His windscreen and driver's door crumpled under the weight.

Mr Taylor, pictured, managed to dive out of the passenger door as the FV432 vehicle ground to a halt on the roof.

It happened on Tuesday as Mr Taylor, a former St Chad's Grammar School pupil, was travelling along the C13 road in Melbury Abbas, near Shaftesbury. Six soldiers from The 3rd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment were training on the tank.

Mr Taylor, who now lives in Blandford, Dorset, with wife Clare, aged 33, and children Amy, six, Ralph, four, and Ethan, one, said today: "I was travelling my usual route to work through Melbury Abbas.

"I arrived at a junction and the armoured vehicle and a lorry were having trouble getting past each other. The next thing I knew it was coming towards me.

"I kept thinking it would stop but it just kept coming. Another few feet and I would have stood no chance."

A spokesman for The 43 Wessex Division at Warminster, said a control had stuck.