A POOLE man whose wheelchair was struck from behind by a car, claims he was “left for dead” in the road.

Peter Launder, was on the pavement near his home in Alder Road around 7.20pm last Saturday when a car mounted the pavement ploughing into him and knocking his wheelchair into the road.

“There’s quite a high kerb and the chair tipped over with me in it,” said Peter, 48, who is an amputee.

“I was laid in the road. The car went around me and stopped at the bottom of the hill.”

He said he lay there behind his wheelchair thinking the driver was going to go back and help him.

“I was right in the middle of the road with cars coming up and down,” he said. “I was huddled behind the wheelchair, really, really scared.”

But as other people rushed to help him the car drove off. He had taken the force of the fall on the stump of his right leg and he is now worried about the injury as he is currently being fitted for his first prosthetic leg.

Peter was full of praise for the women who helped him back into his damaged wheelchair and got him home. The police and a paramedic were called and he was taken to Poole Hospital for treatment.

However, he was left shaken and tearful after his experience and is now reluctant to go out.

“They need to put themselves in my position,” he said of the car’s occupants.

“I was so vulnerable. They left me for dead.”

A diabetic, with a broken arm after a fall, a hip problem and suffering a couple of heart attacks last year, the former boxer lost his leg last year after an accident seven year ago when a piece of wood from a fencing panel penetrated it. Twenty-four operations failed to save it.

Dorset Police are hunting a gold Honda 4x4 in relation to the hit and run and are appealing for witnesses.

Anyone who can help should contact them on 101 or free and anonymous Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.