Cops: Drunken driver fled after hitting pedestrian

Christian Pivaral, 21, of Huntington Station, was arrested and charged... — Christian Pivaral, 21, of Huntington Station, was arrested and charged with drunken driving in a hit-and-run crash that left a pedestrian seriously injured, Suffolk police said. Credit: SCPD

By CANDICE FERRETTEcandice.ferrette@newsday.comDecember 21, 2013

Suffolk County police officers arrested a drunken driver in a hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a pedestrian Saturday in Huntington Station, police said.

The driver, Christian Pivaral, 21, was traveling south when his 1997 Nissan Sentra struck a man crossing New York Avenue at East Second Street just before 4 a.m., police said.

The victim, Alexander Thomas, 48, of Brooklyn, was transported by the Huntington Community First Aid Squad to Huntington Hospital with serious injuries.

Pivaral, of 36 Edwards Place in Huntington Station, fled the scene and was apprehended a short time later on New York Avenue by Second Precinct Officers Joseph Carboni and Thomas Collins.

Pivaral is being charged with leaving the scene of an incident without reporting involving serious physical injury and driving while intoxicated. He is being held overnight and is scheduled for arraignment Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip, police said.

The investigation is continuing.

Detectives are asking anyone with information about the crash to contact the Vehicular Crime Unit at 631-852-6555 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS.