The advice comes after a woman had a gun put to her head and was pistol-whipped in a carjacking in Melbourne's outer south-east on Thursday night. Kay (who did not use her surname), stopped to swap details when her car was rear-ended by an SUV in Narre Warren South. A man who produced a gun, pressed it to her forehead and demanded her keys. When she didn't hand them over straight away, she was pistol-whipped. "I thought, I'm going to die": Kay spoke to the media on Friday after she fell victim to carjackers on Thursday night. Credit:Chris Hopkins Kay, 57, said she started to scream and shout as the man held the gun at her head.

“I thought, I’m going to die now. I thought they were going to shoot me," she said. Kay said she lay awake frightened all that night. "I couldn’t sleep last night," she said on Friday. “What they did was absolutely heartless." Detective Acting Sergeant Dean Higgins said drivers should check to see if the situation is safe before getting out of a vehicle following a crash. “The advice is nowadays, make sure you’re safe first,” he said.

“Under these circumstances ... go by your gut feeling, go by your surrounds. "Have a look first before getting out of the vehicle. And if you don’t believe it is safe, just drive off.” Loading If the situation isn't safe, drivers should head straight to a police station and call triple zero on the way, Acting Sergeant Higgins said. Spokesperson for the Insurance Council of Australia Karl Sullivan stressed the imporance of safety, adding insurance claims could still be lodged and assessed without registration details.

"If you can note the registration of the other vehicle it will be useful, but not essential. Safety first," he said. "As soon as you are safe and have spoken to police, contact your insurer to lodge the claim." Police are now hunting for three men, two of whom fled in Kay's son's Volkswagen and another who left the scene on Harrington Drive in the light-coloured SUV. Officers were told the vehicle was sitting stationary with several men inside. When they saw Kay turn into a round-about they drove into the car. Detective Acting Sergeant Dean Higgins said the attack would be “extremely traumatic” for Kay.

“It is horrendous,” Detective Acting Sergeant Higgins said. “To have a firearm pointed at you and to be threatened in the dark of night is horrific.” The stolen vehicle is a Volkswagen Golf MK7R with black badges on the front and rear and black and gold signature plates BO-55. The attackers have been described as being aged between 17 and 29, tall and of African appearance. The Andrews government introduced new legislation in 2016 to create a specific offence of carjacking and aggravated carjacking. As part of a move to toughen legislation rolled out earlier this year, Victorian judges are now forced to send criminals convicted of these crimes to prison with courts banned from using Community Correction Orders for those offences.