Bystander gets taken on ride in hit-and-run case

A joy ride, this wasn’t.

Eric Hefton, 36, of Sugar Hill found himself hanging on for dear life to the hood of a car Saturday afternoon when a suspected hit-and-run driver fled an accident scene.

Hefton, who, with his wife and 10-year-old son, had just watched “Friday the 13th,” landed in this personal horror show after he stood in front of a Nissan Altima that allegedly sideswiped another vehicle. Suddenly hitting the gas, the driver sped away with Hefton —- about to be run over —- jumping on for a careening ride on Lawrenceville Suwanee Road, according to a Suwanee police report.

The Altima continued about a quarter of a mile along the road with Hefton clinging to the windshield, and the driver alternately swerving, braking and accelerating in an attempt to throw him off, the police report said.

“I was pressed right up against the windshield looking dead at her,” Hefton said. “She had zero expression.”

Jennifer Joy Griffin, 37, of Dacula then turned onto Satellite Boulevard, flipped a U-turn and rear-ended another vehicle before coming to a halt.

At that point, Hefton slid off the hood of Griffin’s car, miraculously unharmed.

Griffin told police she had taken anti-anxiety and antipsychotic medications that afternoon. An officer noted that she appeared “calm, though slightly dazed and unsteady on her feet.”

Griffin was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, hit and run, reckless driving and DUI.

Hefton said the incident struck more terror in his son than any slasher film.

“After everything my son said, ‘Why’d you do that?’ and I said I didn’t have a choice,” Hefton said.

“It was either that or get run over.”