NAUGATUCK — Two borough men walked away from a hit-and-run accident early last Thursday morning that left their car in a mangled lump on the side of I-84 in Southington.
“It was crazy. I’m just happy to be alive,” said the car’s driver, Shaughn Adamski. “I’m kind of still in shock about it.”
Adamski said he was heading back from a Lil Wayne and Drake concert at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford around 1:40 a.m. and was getting ready to change lanes east of Exit 30 when he saw headlights in his rearview mirror.
“Before I could say anything to anybody, we got hit,” Adamski said.
The red 2007 Honda Civic spun out of control across the right lane and shoulder, went down 40 feet of an embankment and hit a tree on the other side, Adamski said.
When the car came to a rest, Adamski said, he looked behind him and saw the trunk behind his head. Pieces of the struts and strut tower were directly behind the driver’s seat, he said. The driver’s side door was pushed in, but a witness helped him and passenger Robert Piech, also of Naugatuck, climb out the passenger side.
Adamski said his insurance company has confirmed that the car is totaled.
Adamski and Piech were taken to Saint Mary’s Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries and released.
Adamski said he had second-degree AC separation in his shoulder and severe back pain. He was wearing a sling on his shoulder last Friday and taking medication for the pain.
“By looking at the picture, you’d think I’d be worse,” Adamski said.
Piech had bruising from the seat belt and is a little sore, Adamski said.
“That car saved our life for sure,” he said.
The driver of the other vehicle, identified by a witness as a black Dodge pickup, didn’t stop.
“He just plowed right through us and kept on going,” Adamski said.
He said the truck hit the back of the Civic and scraped all the way up the driver’s side.
“There’s got to be significant damage on their car and red paint,” Adamski said. “Whoever it is is probably hiding the car pretty well.”
Police found a grill from the truck on the road, he said.
Adamski estimated the truck must have been going 100 mph.
“I was going 65 and he murdered my car,” Adamski said. “I can’t believe they would have the audacity to do that and that they could even physically (drive away). That part blows my mind.”
Adamski’s mother, Pam Adamski, said the initial phone call alerting her to the accident was bad enough, but the worst part was seeing the mangled car the next day.
“It sent chills down my spine and I began to shake and cry. To drive away and leave him for dead is unconscionable,” Pam Adamski said. “For them just to get away with it is appalling. I don’t know how they can sleep at night.”
Shaughn Adamski, a bass player, only recently came back to Naugatuck, where his parents live, after touring with the Vans Warped Tour.
He plans to move out to California in a few weeks to pursue his career in music, but isn’t sure whether his bass, which was in his trunk, has made it. Insurance only covers $200 of the car’s contents, Pam Adamski said.
Shaughn Adamski was out celebrating Piech’s 26th birthday Aug. 14 and got front row seats to the concert. Shaughn Adamski said he’s glad another friend who was supposed to come to the concert with him didn’t come.
“If there was anyone else in the car, they would’ve not made it,” Shaughn Adamski said.
Anyone with information regarding the identity of the driver of the other vehicle should call Troop H at (860) 534-1000.
