A FATHER of three young boys is lucky to be alive after a hit-and-run driver left him for dead in the middle of a roundabout.

Police are hunting for the motorist, who drove off after knocking Justin Graham, 40, off his bike on the Wallisdown Roundabout early last Thursday morning.

Mr Graham, an experienced cyclist who was wearing a cycle helmet, high-visibility clothing and had headlights on his bike, was cycling to work in Poole around 5.30am when the car ploughed into him from Alder Road.

The impact saw him flipped over the top of the car before he landed on his back about 10 metres away.

He suffered two broken vertebrae as well as a broken bone in his hand and nasty grazes to his leg.

His cycle helmet saved him from any sort of head injury.

Justin said: “There is no way he wouldn’t have seen me.

“I’m lit up like a Christmas tree when I’m cycling and I’m not a small person. I did a double somersault over the top of the car and they just kept going. I landed in the road on my back and when I rolled over to try and stand up, I fell backwards onto my back.”

An off-duty fireman who saw the incident raced over to assist Justin, keeping his head still and talking to him until the emergency services arrived.

“At that time of the morning I am usually hard pushed to see another car.

“Thankfully the fireman and another lady stopped.

“From what I can tell I was around 10 metres from where the impact was,” Justin added.

“All I wanted to do was move my legs but obviously I couldn’t.

“But to be honest I was more worried about where my bike was and who was going to tell my wife.

“I can remember riding the bike and then suddenly looking down and thinking it was going to hurt.

“I cracked my helmet and the bike is probably a write-off.”

Now at home after four days in Poole Hospital, Justin is forced to spend the day lying very still and has been prescribed slow-release morphine to ease the pain.

He is due to see a spinal specialist in six weeks, although he has been told by doctors they do not expect any permanent damage.

His wife Rayna, 37, said: “We want whoever did this to realise what they have done.

“How could they just leave someone and live with themselves?

“Now I’m over the shock, I’m just really angry. We just can’t understand it.”

Justin added: “I’m lucky to be alive. I could be dead.

“This has not only affected my life, but my family’s.

“For all the driver knows, I could be dead.

“We’d ask anyone who knows anything to please report it.”

The car is believed to be a blue 2001 to 2004 Toyota Corolla. Anyone with information should contact PC Robert Freeman at Dorset Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.