Nineteen-year-old nursing student Jody Valenti had just spent a night dancing at a disco in New Rochelle with her friend Donna Lauria, 18, when, back in The Bronx, their car suddenly exploded with gunfire.

Donna, in training to be a New York City medic, was killed instantly — shot once in the back — and Jody took a bullet in the left thigh and was in agonizing pain and shock.

It was shortly after 1 a.m. on July 29, 1976. Son of Sam’s murder spree had begun.

With this month’s coming 40th anniversary of the start of David Berkowitz’s reign of terror over New York City, Valenti, now 59, has broken her four-decade silence for the first time in an interview with The Post.

“It took probably about six years of my life to be able to get in a car at night,” she says, her voice strong and confident. “It took a long time to be able to deal with the sounds of popping fireworks and stuff like that . . . But I faced my fears.”

Read Jody’s story at the NY Post