A LORRY driver who ran a red light at Fishguard Port and collided with a train has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Thomas Hughes, 48, of County Wexford, Ireland, appeared before Haverfordwest Magistrates Court last week and admitted driving without due care and attention on the Fishguard Port complex.

He also pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention on to the level crossing and in to the path of an on-coming train, endangering people on the railway.

A charge of dangerous driving was withdrawn.

Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones showed the court a series of three stills taken from CCTV footage of the level crossing, the last of which captured the moment Hughes' lorry hit the train on May 27.

"At the point of the collision, both the train and the lorry were travelling at between 10 and 15 miles per hour," said Mr Pritchard-Jones. "It's fortunate the train was slowing down to stop and was also moving slowly. It wasn't that far from the station platform."

The prosecutor said live footage of the incident "clearly" showed the red lights at the level crossing had been functioning properly.

"They started flashing some 24 seconds before Hughes drove straight through them," Mr Pritchard-Jones stressed. "We're not suggesting he saw the train. We're not suggesting he has mental problems or a death wish. But why he did this, we just don't know."

The weight of the train pushed the lorry aside, and the engine suffered minor damage.

In interview following his arrest, Hughes admitted he had seen the red lights before he drove through them.

Jonathan Webb, defending, said Hughes had no previous convictions and "knows how lucky he was that day".

"The only person who could have come to harm was him. He was up against a very heavy train and it simply pushed his cab aside," Mr Webb explained. "It was a momentary lapse of concentration. I think perhaps it was one of familiarity breeding contempt. My client is a self employed lorry driver and he owns his rig. He goes through both ports in Pembrokeshire about four times a week, and knows them like the back of his hand. He says he didn't see the train until it was right upon him, by which stage it was too late. He wasn't taking a punt and trying to beat the red lights. He wasn't speeding. He's never committed a driving offence before, and he's been driving a lorry for the last 22 years."

Mr Webb added that Hughes' previously "blemish free" driving record had netted him lucrative contracts that helped him survive as a "one-man-band" in a "volatile" industry.

"Those contracts kept him afloat, but he'll lose them as a result of this incident and that makes his future as a lorry driver very uncertain," Mr Webb told the court.

Pointing out that Hughes "could have put the lives of people on the train at risk", Magistrates sentenced him to 16 weeks in prison, suspended for 24 months, and disqualified him from driving for six months. He must also pay court costs of £200.