Jun 5, 2008 11:25 pm US/Eastern
Hit-And-Run Horror: Hartford Man Mowed Down
Former Bronx Resident, 78, Paralyzed From Neck Down; Family Upset After Dozens Of Witnesses Do Nothing
WARNING: Surveillance Video Is Graphic
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBS) ―
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Angel Arce, the son of the victim of a gruesome hit-and-run accident in Hartford, Conn., fights back tears while speaking about the incident with CBS 2 HD.
CBS
An elderly man was plowed into by a reckless driver last Friday. What's worse, the driver just kept on going.
The horrifying incident, as well as the shocking reaction from onlookers, was caught on video. Now his family wants answers.
Angel Arce left his bedside vigil at Hartford Hospital to share his anguish at the shocking hit and run that has his father, 78-year-old Angel Arce Torres, clinging to life.
"If anyone knows anything, please come forward. If these guys are listening, please find it in your heart," Arce said. "Don't live with this for the rest of your life."
It happened Friday and was captured by a surveillance camera on Park Street in Hartford. Torres had just left a deli when two cars came speeding by. One of them hit Torres, catapulting him into the air. The impact broke many bones and paralyzed Torres below the neck.
Hit-and-run accidents happen all the time. It's what happened after the cars fled the scene that has so many in Hartford so upset. What happened -- was nothing.
Ten cars drove right past the victim. No one stopped to render aid. Witnesses wandered into the street, but no one comforted Torres.
"I think any human being would have been touched by that video," Hartford Police Chief Daryl Roberts said. "It could have been any one of us, our parents, grandparents …"
But witness Kevin Quinn told CBS 2 HD people weren't being heartless.
"I don't think it was a question of people not caring," Quinn said. "It was a question more of people not wanting to move him because he obviously was injured."
Arce certainly wasn't buying that rationale.
"When you drive by and just watch a person on the ground …" he said before breaking down and turning away from the camera.
Arce says people who ignored his father can atone by cooperating fully with police as they search for the hit-and-run drivers.
The victim is a retired factory worker who lived for many years in the Bronx. He has seven children and more than 40 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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