George Estochin said he doesn’t remember much about being hit by a pickup truck that fled the scene Saturday in the parking lot of the Tractor Supply store in East Huntingdon.
“But I can tell you the only thing that doesn’t hurt on me is my nose. No broken bones, but I’m black and blue from head to toe,” said the 64-year-old Melcroft, Fayette County man.
“I must have had a guardian angel looking over me though,” he said.
State police in Greensburg are asking the public’s help identifying the driver of the truck that struck Estochin at 2:17 p.m. in the parking lot of the store in Countryside Plaza.
Estochin was initially transported by ambulance to AHN Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, but later transferred to the trauma unit at UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh, where he spent a night before being released Sunday.
“I’m in a band, Dirt Road Sunset, and was out selling our CDs for the several charities we support and decided to call it a day at 1:30 p.m. and was crossing the crosswalk toward my pickup truck and that’s about all I remember,” Estochin said Monday.
Estochin said witnesses to the hit-and-run told him the driver of the pickup truck “who had a beard and mustache got out of the truck, stood over me and asked if I was OK.”
“They told him no and they said that he replied, ‘I got to get out of here,’ and he got back in his truck and drove away,” Estochin said.
Police said the truck was a 1997-2007 white Chevrolet or GMC single-cab pickup with bungee cords on the tailgate.
Witnesses said the driver was a white male, about 6 feet tall, with facial hair. He was believed to be in his 50s or 60s.
“I’m not sue-happy or anything like that. But I would like to see him turn himself in and take care of the situation,” Estochin said.
Estochin’s wife, Mary, said because of multiple health concerns, she has to give him daily injections now, plus drive him to see a physician every morning this week to have blood tests.
“I was told the truck driver was coming down the wrong way when he hit George. It’s very upsetting,” she said.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 724-832-3288.
