Road rage victim: 'I was lucky not to be killed'

Lying face-down on the hard tarseal, Jenny Smith saw the black car that had just bowled her to the ground coming back at her.
"I was running down the road trying to get to the ditch but he hit me in the back before I got there," Mrs Smith said yesterday as she recalled the terrifying ordeal.
"I was on the road and he reversed really quickly and was coming towards me again."
As the Honda Prelude gained speed, the Mount Maunganui woman, fearing for her life, scrambled to safety in a nearby ditch.
Standing in the muddy drain, Mrs Smith saw the black car speed away.
Only minutes earlier about 7am on Monday, she had been walking her two dogs, Bre and Chopper, near the boat ramp off Taiaho Place - an early morning ritual alongside Tauranga Harbour Bridge.
"I noticed the car there and heaps of rubbish around it. Toilet paper and takeaway bags, like they had cleared out the car."
She made a request to a young man in the driver's seat "to take your rubbish with you".
She noted a young girl under a blanket in the passenger's seat.
Mrs Smith continued her walk with her canine companions but the man started yelling at her, demanding she come back.
"It was like he was high on something. He was in a rage."
When she turned around, the car - with the young female passenger still inside along with another dog - was heading straight for her.
"I turned and ran. The car sounded like it was going fast and then it hit me in the back."
Mrs Smith rolled across the bonnet before being thrown to the ground.
"He could have killed me if he wanted to."
She counts herself lucky to have made it safely to the ditch.
With the car registration firmly printed on her mind and her adrenaline pumping, Mrs Smith pulled herself from the ditch and ran 500m to her house.
After phoning the police Mrs Smith and her husband hopped into their car and went looking for the offending driver.
But they were unable to spot the car, registration PY4909.
Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times yesterday, Mrs Smith said she felt lucky she had only a sore back and a few grazes on her knees to show for the life-threatening ordeal.
"A few grazes is all I have. Looking back now I know I was really lucky not to be killed."
Mrs Smith said the boat ramp area at the bottom of Taiaho Place was a popular spot for boy racers to meet and she frequently phoned police when cars gathered there.
"They leave their rubbish behind and make a real mess and usually there are smashed bottles. They just have no respect."
The driver was described as a European in his 20s, of slight build. The young girl with him was aged between 15 and 20.
Detective Peter Blackwell said the unprovoked hit and run was concerning. "This was totally unprovoked and the woman is very lucky she is not in hospital."
Police believe the driver has been sleeping rough in his car around Tauranga and Mount Maunganui. Mr Blackwell said the driver had already come to the attention of police over the past couple of weeks on other matters.
The car is registered to a person in the lower North Island.
"He's still around here and we have to get him before the courts before he does this again," Mr Blackwell said.
Anyone with information or sightings of the car should contact Det Blackwell on 575 3143 or call 0800 SPEAKUP.