A man is fighting for his life after he was struck by a vehicle whose driver fled the scene overnight in East Boston, according to police.
Boston police and EMS responded to the scene at 19 Bennington St. late Thursday night, just shy of midnight, where a pedestrian had been involved in a hit-and-run crash.
The pedestrian was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said. His name has not been released.
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
A friend of the victim, Billy Travalgia, told NBC10 Boston and NECN on Friday that he works with him as a livery driver for a cab service.
"He’s a good friend," Travalgia said. "I just hope he’s alright."
"He's got massive head injuries. He's bad," Travalgia added of his friend's condition. "I talked to a cop when I first got here, he said he was pretty messed up. I guess the people just took off, I really don't know."
Local
Travalgia said he only found out about the crash when he got a call to come into work early Friday morning.
"My boss called me and told me that Alan who is a livery driver like myself got hit by a car crossing the street going to our office," he said.
New surveillance video shows the moments right before Travalgia's friend was struck and seriously hurt after he was hit by a driver in an SUV that did not stop.
Before the driver got away, though, police say someone tried to follow the suspect, calling authorities to give them the driver's license plate number; that man spoke to NBC10 Boston and NECN Friday night.
"I heard like a big bang, like somebody got hit," said the man who did not want to show his face on camera. "I turn my head and I saw the guy flying on the floor."
That's when the man says he took off chasing after the driver.
"It was kind of like watching a movie. She just didn't care about stopping or anything like that. She just kept on going," the man said of the driver involved in the hit-and-run crash.
The man who chased after the driver says at one point, the driver did stop. And that's when he says he told her to pull over, chasing her into Charlestown before he eventually backed off.
"I said, 'pull over. You hit a guy.' She had her window up and she just started cussing, and had a phone in the air," the man recalled.
Evidence markers were placed along street and sidewalk on Friday as investigators pieced together what happened. No arrests have been made.
As the investigation unfolds and detectives search for more surveillance video, those who work on Bennington Street told NBC10 Boston that they're alarmed but not shocked.
"No, I wasn’t surprised," said Michael Ferullo. "I've seen a gentlemen get hit ten feet from where we are right now."
"We're certainly concerned for the safety of our community," said David Searles.
As much as Ferullo and Searles hate to hear about a hit-and-run crash, they hope what happened Thursday night will highlight the safety issues on their busy and narrow street.
"Something needs to be done whether it needs to be widened, or parking, I don’t know, but something needs to be done," Ferullo said. "There's been a lot of incidents this year."
Boston police have yet to release any official description of the driver or SUV that was involved in the crash.
An investigation is ongoing.
