Ex-City Paper editor hospitalized after hit-and-run

Brian Hickey, a former managing editor of Philadelphia City Paper and the head of electricians union boss John J. Dougherty's recent campaign for the state Senate, remained in critical condition yesterday after a hit-and-run accident in South Jersey.

Hickey, 35, of the city's East Falls section, suffered major brain trauma when he was struck by a motorist about 10:15 p.m. Friday in Collingswood, according to police.

As of late yesterday, Hickey was no longer in an induced coma, a spokeswoman for Cooper University Hospital said, but he was not awake or responding to voice commands.

A CAT scan showed that a vein on the left side of his brain had hemorrhaged, she said, and it would likely take "some time" for the blood to drain. All other vital signs were stable, she said.

Hickey was hit as he walked to a PATCO stop after a reunion with some Haddon Township High School friends, police said. The driver fled.

There were no suspects, Police Chief Thomas Garrity said yesterday, but detectives are canvassing the area.

"I just want them to catch whoever did this," said Hickey's wife, Angela Hickey, 32, a nursing student at the University of Pennsylvania who works full-time at Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

"I'm still totally in shock. It's really hard to see Brian. He looks terrible," she said. "I barely recognize him."

The couple, University of Delaware alumni, didn't meet until after they graduated, she said. They were introduced by a mutual friend in 2000 and married five years later.

Most recently, Hickey had been freelancing for Metro, Philadelphia Weekly and Philly.com. Also, he had been writing a blog, "Philly Blunt," in which he referred to his wife as "Bride Hickey."

Hickey left City Paper in February, after almost five years there, to manage Dougherty's campaign for what was then Vincent J. Fumo's First Senate District seat. Dougherty lost in the primary.

According to former City Paper coworkers, Hickey was a perfect fit for the feisty alternative weekly.

"He had the Irish writer's soul, and all that it entails," said ex-editor Howard Altman (2000-2004), now an editor for the Tampa Tribune's online operation. He hired Hickey away from rival Philadelphia Weekly.

"Great talent, dark humor, a gregarious personality. He likes to enjoy life. He's a fighter, too," he said. "If anybody can pull through this, he can."

Former City Paper art director Jessica Weber, a nurse in the neurosurgical intensive-care unit at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, said Hickey's sense of humor kept the staff in, well, stitches.

At parties, Hickey sometimes brought along Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, a longtime member of Howard Stern's "Wack Pack," Weber said. (Kallenbach died in April from pneumonia while in Delaware County Jail on a charge of attempted child abduction.)

Doron Taussig, City Paper's news editor, said Hickey was all business when it came to his reporters' deadlines.

"He's an old-school journalist, rough around the edges. He curses a lot. If he disagrees with you, he will do so, vehemently. . . . But when I was having trouble with a story, he was never anything but supportive."

Anyone with information about the hit-and-run accident is being asked to call Collingswood police at 856-854-1901, Ext. 223.