Malcolm Copeland, 49, was hit by a passing car at Cuckoo Bridge on the Glasgow Road, knocked to the ground, flipped over, and dragged several yards along the road by a badly mangled leg trapped in a wheel.
It was all witnessed by his shocked fiancee Joanne Crowther, who said: “I saw what I thought was a traffic cone being thrown into the air.
“When it landed on the road I realised it was Malcolm.”
The driver did not stop, and she added: “I watched in shock as he was then dragged by the left foot up the hill.”
Malcolm and Joanne, from South Yorkshire, had just left a family party to make their way to a new home in Newcastle when the drama unfolded on the night of July 21.
The newly-engaged couple realised their petrol was low, before running out on the roundabout near Tesco Extra.
Malcolm went for his fuel container, but in the dark was struck by a passing Renault Clio.
Joanne said: “I ran to him, put him in the recovery position and fended off the gathering crowd.”
The dad-of-two suffered severe fractures to his lower left leg, with initial fears he might lose the limb.
He has now undergone four operations, but Malcolm says a specialist at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary told him if it had not been for the strength of his footwear his foot ‘would have been pulled off’.
Paying credit to the steel reinforced Fife Dealer Safety boots by Dickies that he wears every day, Malcolm said: “They are solid, and strong, and as my accident showed they protected me against all odds”.
The driver of the Renault Clio was identified by police as a 22-year-old man from Dumfries. He was uninjured.
Despite the incident, Malcolm and Joanne are set to return to Scotland soon to get married and Joanne said: “He will look dashing in a kilt, a sporran and a new pair of Dickies safety boots.”
