With their son on life support, this Toronto couple pleads for hit-and-run driver to come forward
The father of a 24-year-old Toronto man who has been in a coma since a horrific hit-and-run collision two weeks ago is pleading with the driver of a Mercedes Benz GL to turn themselves in to police.
Dante Racioppo was travelling with three others in an Acura when police say it was rear-ended on the Gardiner Expressway just after midnight.
The Mercedes drove off.
And that left the car in which Racioppo was travelling vulnerable to a second vehicle that decimated it, the man's father told CBC Toronto.
"Whoever it is, just do the right thing and step forward, that's all we want," said Silvano Racioppo from his north Toronto home.
Dante Racioppo has been in the intensive care unit at St. Michael's Hospital since the collision Jan. 3, where he's undergone five operations. He's been in an induced coma for much of that time, his family said.
"He's making some small progress physically, but he still has some bleeding in the brain that is causing the doctors some concern," his father said.
"The first week was rather surreal," Lianne Racioppo said of her son. "It has definitely hit us and we get up every day and cope and pray for his comfort."
10 minutes from home
Racioppo had been in the backseat of the car as he and friends from church were returning home from a New Year's trip to New York. Police say the Acura was first struck on the Gardiner east of Highway 427.
Racioppo's father said the family was told the Acura lost both control and its power while the Mercedes drove off. At that point, his son's friend, the driver, turned to check that everyone was OK, Silvano Racioppo said in an interview.
"My son, who was sitting behind him said, 'We're fine but I think you're in the middle of the road. We need to move off,''' recounted Silvano Racioppo.
"Just as he said that, two of the passengers looked behind and saw the lights."
A Lincoln Town Car hit the Acura so hard its back end was crushed.
Racioppo suffered massive internal bleeding, a broken femur, broken ribs and a broken collarbone. He had a punctured lung, ruptured bowels and a broken arm.
"He has a myriad of injuries; some of them we haven't gotten to," his father said. "The broken arm? They haven't even set [it] because they still have to deal with everything that's going on inside."
Another passenger in the backseat had her hip dislocated and suffered fractured ribs. The driver also broke several of his ribs in the collision, one of which punctured his heart.
Racioppo had been only 10 minutes from his home when the car was hit, his father said.
Racioppo's father said he believes that if the driver of the Mercedes had stayed at the scene, the SUV's lights and hazards could have warned other cars nearby that there had been a collision.
"The first car ... left them sitting ducks for the second one to hit them," Silvano Racioppo said.
Police are still looking for that first car — a 2007 to 2009 silver Mercedes Benz GL with damage to its front end.
"We all make decisions that we regret later, but I don't think we always understand the implications of those," Silvano Racioppo said. "There's some serious consequences that have come from a decision that was made on that night that are having a long-lasting ripple effect."
