Police continued to search Tuesday for the driver of a gold pickup truck that struck Yale astronomy researcher Gordon Drukier’s bicycle and seriously injured him before fleeing the scene last Thursday.
Drukier, 38, was riding to work along Whalley Avenue near Sperry Street around 9:50 a.m. when he was hit by the truck, police said. He suffered trauma to the head and a fractured femur and pelvis, which required major surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Two men got out of the truck and walked over to Drukier as he lay on the ground, then got back in their vehicle and sped off, police said.
Reached Tuesday night at University Health Services, where he continues his recovery, Drukier said he is lucky the accident was not more serious.
“I thank God that it was, in a sense, so straightforward to put me back together,” he said.
Drukier said doctors have told him he will regain full mobility in a few months, adding that he hopes to return home by the end of the week and return to work once his strength returns.
He said he did not see the two men from the truck walk over to him, but heard about them from other witnesses who stopped to help him.
“These two people clearly have no sense of social responsibility and shouldn’t be on the road,” Drukier said.
David Avigdor, Drukier’s attorney, said he had spoken with a number of witnesses who would be able to identify the men and the truck they were driving.
“I can’t tell you how incensed I am about this matter,” said Avigdor, who is also Drukier’s neighbor and rabbi. “If I could speak to this man, I would tell him he better turn himself in.
“We will prosecute [the driver] to the fullest extent of the law.”
Fake check scheme bounced
This was one check that would have bounced about a mile high.
New Haven police arrested two men Monday in the Hill neighborhood after the men paid for a delivery of over $30,000 in jewelry with a fake check.
Police were alerted to the delivery of the jewelry, which came from a North Carolina distributor, through an unspecified source of information. Officers were observing the scene when the package arrived and determined that the check given by the two men as payment for the jewelry was counterfeit.
Police charged Ronald Spellman, 18, of Frederick Street, with first-degree larceny, forgery and conspiracy to commit larceny. They also charged Kevin Horne, 28, of Waybossett Street, with conspiracy and interfering.