A DAD with a serious heart condition was left a bloody mess after suffering a vicious road rage attack.

Delivery driver Richard Carey, 57, spotted a driver waving his arms as he waited to turn right out of Pope’s Crescent onto High Road in Pitsea.

After noticing the driver had also left a gap, Mr Carey pulled out of the junction - only for the Audi to stop in front of him.

The driver, believed to be aged in his forties, then got out and started shouting abuse, before reaching through Mr Carey’s window and punching him in the face.

Mr Carey said: “A lot of what he said would have needed to be bleeped out. My window was down and he smashed me in the face and then got back into his car and drove off.

“I just fell out of the van and some passers-by stopped to help me.”

The good samaritans told Mr Carey the amount of blood on the pavement was “obscene” and called for an ambulance.

As he is on Warfarin, heart medication which thins the blood, paramedics struggled to stop the bleeding and Mr Carey had to spend seven hours in A&E.

He underwent scans to check for fractures, but they came back clear.

Doctors are unable to tell whether his nose is broken as it is so badly swollen.

Mr Carey said: “I still can’t believe someone would do that.

“You see about these unprovoked attacks on Crimewatch but you never think that while you are on your way to deliver items it will happen to you.

“I am still shaken up by what happened.

“It is awful.”

Mr Carey told the Echo the police appear “uninterested” in the case. He said: “I still haven’t spoken to a policeman.

“It would make it a bit better if I know that he is going to be caught, but he is driving around a free man.”

The driver is described as being white British, stocky and with thinning brown hair.

He had a golden Labrador in his car, thought to be silver or grey, along with a woman and a man.

The assault took place at about 12.40pm on Monday.

An Essex Police spokesman said: “We assess every call based on threat, harm, risk and vulnerability and prioritise them accordingly.

“However, a number of factors could affect response times. For example, there may be significant incidents happening elsewhere in the district, or within the county, that require a high level of resource. There may also be a large number of priority calls that officers are attending.”

Anyone with information should call Essex police on 101.