Gidget Whibley describes being involved in a hit-run incident outside the Royal Family Hotel in Port Elliot.

A young woman has spoken about the moment she was involved in an alleged hit-run outside the Royal Family Hotel in Port Elliot.

A good Samaritan bottleshop employee has suffered leg and head injuries when a hit-run driver reversed into a group of people outside the Royal Family Hotel in Port Elliot in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The 22-year-old man from Hindmarsh Island stepped in to break up a fight outside the pub soon after it closed when a car driven by a 37-year-old NSW man allegedly reversed into a group of people on the footpath.

The man was flown to Royal Adelaide Hospital with serious life-threatening injuries where he underwent surgery on Saturday morning.

Four other people, including Gidget Whibley, 20, from Inman Valley and her friends – a 21-year-old man from Goolwa Beach, a 37-year-old woman from Port Elliott and a 30-year-old man from Blackwood – were also injured.

Ms Whibley told the Sunday Mail she was grateful to be alive and “it could have been so much worse”.

A man is fighting for his life and a suspect has been arrested, accused of driving his car into a group of people outside a Port Elliot pub. Picture: 7News

Gidget Whibley was one of five people injured in the crash. Picture: Supplied.

The cafe worker said her group of friends had left the pub just after 1.30am when the driver started doing “skids” on the road.

“Some of the boys yelled out stuff like, ‘stop being a flog’, just trying to get him to stop,” she said.

“He got out of the car and ran to one of the boys … he just went off and some of the others retaliated, and then a fight broke out in the middle of the street between the bakery and the pub.”

Following the altercation, Ms Whibley said the driver got back into the car and appeared to be driving away.

“Then he started going the other way and I couldn’t remember what happened next – it was all just a blur,” she said.

“I remember getting up off the ground and thinking, ‘Can I feel anything? Am I breathing?’ But nothing was broken.

“We were all pretty traumatised. We were just baffled that we were all alive.”

CCTV footage captured by a next-door business shows the driver of the blue Ford sedan pulling up to the hotel at 1:40am.

The car lingers for five minutes with its lights on before a group of people enter the frame and appear to surround the vehicle.

The car slowly drives forward with the group following it, exiting the frame briefly, before the people appear to be knocked back in the opposite direction.

Inspector Gene Vaninetti said “there was clearly an altercation that occurred” but what happened afterwards remains unclear.

“There were a large amount of people at the premises last night, so we’re still trying to link together who is associated with who,” Inspector Vaninetti said.

“The pub had just closed, last drinks had been called, hence why the patrons had spilled out onto the road and hence were waiting out the front to go home.”

Inspector Vaninetti said it was unclear whether alcohol consumption played a role.

The vehicle believed to be involved in the crash was later found nearby on Sturt St.

The driver has been charged with causing harm by dangerous driving, due care and leaving the scene of a crash.

He has been refused bail and will appear before the Christies Beach Magistrates Court on Tuesday 8 October.

Originally published as Gidget Whibley describes being involved in a hit-run incident outside the Royal Family Hotel in Port Elliot.