SUNNYSIDE — Police released dramatic surveillance video Wednesday of a hit-and-run driver who slammed into a motorcyclist at a red light, leaving the victim with a fractured pelvis and speeding away like the biker was "roadkill," his family said.
Frank Morse Jr., 48, was waiting at a red light at Victory Boulevard and Little Clove Road on Aug. 6, when the driver of a silver sedan crashed into him from behind at about 8:24 p.m., according to the NYPD and his sister, Julianne Siciliano.
The driver didn't slow down after the collision and kept driving along Victory Boulevard, police said.
"If the person would've stopped, he would've landed on the hood of the car and it would have not been so severe," said Sicilcano. "Because they didn't stop, he went flying.
"It's like roadkill," Siciliano added. "It's like they just killed a deer and left him on the road."
Morse was taken to Staten Island University Hospital in critical but stable condition, police said.
The crash left Morse with a fractured pelvis and a dislocated shoulder, his sister said.
He already endured a nine-hour surgery the night of the crash, had screws placed into his pelvis and still needs to go in for more surgery on his shoulder, she said. Morse is expected to be in a wheelchair for three to six months while he recovers.
"It's going to be a long, painful road to recovery and he’s in a lot pain," Siciliano said. "We’re trying to get his pain under management."
Morse works for the Department of Sanitation and graces the cover of the agency's 2016 calendar, his sister noted. He lives in Westerleigh with his three kids and has been riding motorcycles for more than 20 years.
His injuries could have been worse, as he just installed a passenger backrest to his bike that helped absorb some of the blow from the car, according to his sister.
"If he didn't have it on, the car would've run right through his back," she said.
Since the crash, Morse and her family have been posting pictures of Morse and the car all over Facebook hoping it will help catch the driver.
Police described the vehicle as a four-door sedan with damage to the hood and front driver's side.
The incident is the third reported hit-and-run in the borough this summer.
A pedestrian was struck by a hit-and-run driver on June 30 outside the St. George Ferry Terminal, and Beatrice Tchoungoua, 22, mowed down a woman on a Grasmere street and dragged her body on July 14, police said.
Tchoungoua was arrested earlier this month and charged with leaving the scene of an accident, aggravated unlicensed operator, failing to yield to a pedestrian and failure to stop at a stop sign.
