A KENT police officer has described how he had only a split second to act before being run down by a motorist.

PC Alex Planck leapt on to the bonnet of the moving vehicle and was thrown into the road. As the driver tried to escape, he and a colleague grabbed hold of the car doors, hauled him out, along with two passengers, and arrested them all.

The 34-year-old constable was describing events after the driver, Jonathan Johnson, 21, of Courtenay Road, Maidstone, pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court to aggravated vehicle taking, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and driving while disqualified. Johnson will be sentenced in December.

On Wednesday, August 23, at about 7.20am, PC Planck and his colleague responded to a report of men acting suspiciously by a vehicle in Sandling Lane, Maidstone. They stopped their patrol car in front of the Ford Fiesta and PC Planck walked towards it.

“I was walking towards the car almost nonchalantly, casually, because I wanted to be non-confrontational. The engine revved up and it came straight at me.

“I could see the driver. I could see his eyes. He was focused on me. I jumped up to try and get out of the way and went on to the bonnet and into the windshield.

“I only know I went into the windshield because I smacked it with my knee. I remember being on the floor and it going into reverse. I got out of the way and we started ripping open the doors and got him out.

"I was all right initially. Then people started turning up and I saw the windscreen and people started asking what happened.

“Then the reality hits home. I have no doubts he didn’t care what he did. He could see where I was standing and he was driving at me.”

PC Planck, who lives in the West Malling area, was left with damaged ligaments in his knee and bruising on his shoulder and hip. He was off work for more than a week and has had counselling.

PC Planck, a police officer for four-and-a-half years and based at Maidstone Police Station, said the incident had given him greater understanding of what victims of crime go through.

The officer in charge of the case, Det Con Stuart Champion, said: “We always run the risk of something like this happening and you have to put that to the back of your mind and carry on and do the job.”