Hit-And-Run Driver In Worcester Wanted After Pedestrian Seriously Hurt

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester police are looking for help to identify a driver who hit and seriously injured a man riding a scooter along June Street earlier this month.

The collision happened just after 3 a.m. on July 19 in the eastbound lanes of June Street. The 26-year-old man riding the scooter was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, police said in a news release.

Police on Wednesday released this clip of the driver and vehicle involved in the collision:

The scooter rider was identified in a GoFundMe appeal as Jacob Tetreault. The organizer of the fundraiser said Tetreault was riding home from a shift at work when the driver hit him from behind.

"The vehicle took off leaving him for dead in the road with head lacerations that were stapled, all of his ribs broken on the left side, broken clavicle, pelvis broken in 3 places and horrible road rash. Since being in the hospital, he has now suffered a collapsed lung and has had to have a tube placed," the appeal said. "The collision happened amid rising concerns about pedestrian safety in Worcester after a series of incidents where drivers injured or killed people."

Tetreault's collision came amid a series of incidents this summer in Worcester where pedestrians have been maimed or killed.

The latest incident along Shrewsbury Street on Monday left a 13-year-old girl seriously injured. Two days before the scooter rider was hit, a 54-year-old man was gravely hurt after a pickup truck driver hit him along Pleasant Street — the same night the city council delayed action on declaring a public health emergency for vulnerable road users.

Before those incidents, a driver hit and seriously injured a toddler along Lincoln Street. Gianna Rose Simoncini, 13, died while crossing a dangerous section of Belmont Street on June 27.