Hit and run victim hopes video finds driver

It's been two months since Steve Acquaviva was hit in East Garden City by a pickup, whose driver covered him with a blanket before taking off at the sound of police sirens.

Unable to remember what happened, the victim Wednesday released a surveillance video recording of the Feb. 12 accident, hoping someone will come forward about the driver. Acquaviva was flung about 15 feet as he crossed Commercial Avenue at about 6 p.m., right by Cross Island Welding, where he worked, leaving him with a broken pelvis, internal bleeding, a torn eyelid that required about 120 stitches and other injuries.

"I would just love to know who did it and find out why he left," said Acquaviva, 54, a welder. "Just because you hit somebody doesn't mean you get in trouble. . . . We both could have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's why they say accidents happen."

As his boss and co-workers hovered over the victim, the footage from Cross Island shows the driver getting a blanket from his vehicle, the welder's wife said.

"He was there a good eight minutes with my husband before he took off," Monika Acquaviva said.

"If he had any kind of compassion . . . if it was him, I'm sure he'd want the right thing done."

Nassau police said the pickup had a cab and a two-tone bottom. The Centereach couple said images from a nearby ravioli maker reveal the vehicle had a broken passenger-side window covered by cardboard.

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In releasing the video, the couple said they're frustrated by the pace of the investigation. A police spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the detective on the case was not available Thursday.

"The video wasn't that clear, but if the picture was clearer . . . I might have just turned away and walked away [from watching the video]," the victim said, before quickly correcting himself. "Not walked away. Wheeled away."

Acquaviva has been in a wheelchair, unable to walk because his pelvis, held together by a metal plate, hasn't healed enough to bear his weight. In three weeks or so, he's expected to start rehab.

The victim believes the driver works around Commercial Avenue because it's an industrial area with no homes: "The guy could work in my industrial area, right next door."