Ex-City Paper editor wants justice, closure

Brian Hickey's not asking for much — just a simple apology from the gutless driver who ran him over and left him for dead in South Jersey a few months ago.
One might expect the former City Paper managing editor to be calling for a harsher form of justice, given all he's had to endure since he was mowed down Nov. 28 walking near a PATCO stop in Collingswood.
Hickey, 35, suffered a traumatic brain injury and was in a medically-induced coma for eight days at the Cooper University Hospital, in Camden.
Doctors removed two large bones from his skull during a bilaterial craniectomy — bones they will eventually have to put back into place. For now, he wears a protective helmet.
A month after the accident, Hickey learned to move his right arm again, and his rehab efforts started to gain steam.
Hickey returned to his East Falls home last month, but the accident and the unresolved investigation still torments him and his wife, Angela.
"It kind of eats you up, knowing somebody out there almost killed you and doesn't have the balls to 'fess up and come forward," he told the Daily News yesterday.
"I would take an anonymous apology if the guy or girl just called and said, 'I hit you and I feel bad about it. I don't want to give my name because I don't want to go to jail.' That would give me closure."
Few leads or tips have made their way to Collingswood police, Hickey said.
To that end, his friends and family members put together a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the hit-and-run driver.
More supporters have popped up on Facebook, the popular social-networking Web site.
Hickey created a group, "Help me find the person who almost killed me," that reminds people of the reward.
He remembers little of what happened to him the night of the accident. Hickey took the train to Jersey to meet a few old high-school buddies for a guy's night out. He was run down on North Atlantic Avenue at West Linden at about 10:15 p.m.
The man who found Hickey bloodied and unconscious saw a car speeding east on Atlantic Avenue, but he didn't get a description of the car or the license plate.
Hickey, who worked as the campaign manager for labor leader John Dougherty's failed Senate bid last spring, said that he's grateful for the progress he's made. But he noted he has a long way to go on the road to recovery. Yesterday was a good day, he said. "I was able to walk by myself to the corner store."
Tipsters can contact Collingswood police at 856-854-2401, ext. 101.