In Sean Christopher Bardwell's meth-addled mind, the man desperately trying to get into the car was trying to kill him.
The 28-year-old Dunedin man had actually stolen the vehicle and the man he believed was after him was its owner, trying to remove the keys before the thief escaped.
Bardwell made it only a matter of metres, ploughing into a skip and crushing the victim's knee.
He appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to aggravated injuring, unlawfully taking a vehicle, driving while impaired, possession of methamphetamine and dangerous driving causing injury.
The court heard Bardwell's erratic behaviour began at the start of last year, when he stopped taking medication following the breakdown of a relationship.
He went on an unscheduled overseas holiday and then in May took an ''impulsive'' trip to Christchurch, where the incident took place.
After a drug binge, Bardwell left a bag outside Christchurch Hospital.
Security found 0.17g of methamphetamine inside the bag.
Meanwhile, Bardwell had wandered off to Splash N Dash in Addington.
At 1.40am, the victim was washing his red Honda with the engine still running.
Bardwell hopped into the driver's seat and hit the car owner several times in the head as he made his bungled getaway bid.
After the crash, the victim was left with a large haematoma, nerve damage and swelling to his knee.
Despite that, Judge Michael Crosbie said, the injured man had taken a ''benevolent'' stance.
He wrote in a statement that Bardwell had made some bad decisions but that did not make him a ''bad guy''.
''I hope he gets the help he needs,'' the victim said.
Bardwell was candid with police on arrest, admitting consuming ''a large amount of methamphetamine''.
Defence counsel Andrew Dawson said his client had apologised to the victim and already paid the man $1800 - about a third of what he owed for the damage to the car.
The judge accepted the offending was out of character for Bardwell who only had a minor driving matter on his criminal record beforehand.
''What I have before me is a young man [who was] in the middle of a psychotic episode,'' he said.
While Judge Crosbie opted against a prison term, the margin was narrow.
''Just, and only just'', he sentence Bardwell to 11 months' home detention and banned him from driving for three years.
The defendant will pay the remaining $3650 to the victim at $100 a week.
