THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605050043
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS AND STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
The acrid smell of smoke and someone's urgent warnings are the first and lasting memories officer Richard Di-Napoli has of the moments after his police motorcycle was wrecked by an alleged drunken driver.
Lying on the pavement with his right leg crushed and other severe injuries evident, DiNapoli heard a rescue worker's caution to remain still. He was told that the Harley-Davidson he'd been riding was a crumpled heap burning nearby.
``Oh boy,'' DiNapoli recalls thinking in the foggy minutes before the pain of his extensive injuries caught up with him. ``Five hundred miles on it . . . brand new.''
It didn't occur to him then how much he and the cycle had in common.
DiNapoli, 35, was like new himself two weeks earlier when he was commended for beating the odds. He had returned to cycle patrol after two years of sometimes-grueling efforts to recover from severe injuries he'd received in another accident. Also in April. Also while on police patrol. The driver in that accident was drunk.
Now, he'd been in another crash.
DiNapoli was responding to a report of a fight on the night of April 23. As he steered north on Pacific Avenue, a car turned into his path at 7th Street. ``I tried to avoid it and I was unable to,'' he said Saturday from his bed at Virginia Beach General Hospital where his latest recovery ordeal is only beginning.
He's as determined as ever to return to duty. But the seven-year veteran won't be saddling up a two-wheeler again. His priorities have changed.
``As long as my leg lets me, I'll go back,'' he said. But, ``I'm definitely done getting on motorcycles. I've got more to think about now than just getting on the bike.''
Like a 2-month old daughter to raise with his wife of two years. That's the source of his optimism.
Some might think DiNapoli terribly unlucky, having been in two accidents . He disagrees.
``I'm lucky,'' he insisted. ``I'm here. And I'll see my daughter and wife. So I'm lucky.''
DiNapoli, whose right leg is in a cocoon of bandages, metal and wires, will soon leave the hospital after two weeks of treatment that has included three operations. A fourth visit with the surgeon is yet to come. And it may be fall before he walks again, according to his doctor, R. Michael Graham.
``It is hard to say whether he will have full function of the knee,'' Graham said as he detailed his patient's injuries. They include multiple fractures of the same leg that was badly damaged two years ago.
The breaks are so many that Graham likens DiNapoli to Humpty Dumpty. The difference is, he hopes to put this broken man back together again.
For now, DiNapoli and his wife, Terry, find solace in the ``unbelievable'' amount of support they've received from police and citizens alike.
``There was just a sea of blue shirts'' at the hospital night of the accident, she said. And, back home, there are stacks of cards and mail from well-wishers - some with postmarks from as far away as Hawaii.
The big concern for the couple now - next to DiNapoli's recovery - will be paying the bills.
DiNapoli, who came to Virginia Beach from his native Brooklyn, N.Y. 11 years ago, gave up a lucrative job selling insurance when he became a police officer. The move halved his income, but it was the job he'd always wanted.
Now the family income will be slashed again. Although DiNapoli will collect most of his $29,000 salary while he heals, there will no more second job to supplement it. And his wife will have to give her job at Leggett department store to care for him.
Still, Richard DiNapoli isn't complaining.
``As wrecks go, it was a good wreck,'' he said, because he survived. But, ``April is not a good month for me,'' he conceded. ``Next year, we're going to take April off.'' MEMO: A fund has been established to help the DiNapoli family. Donations may
be dropped off at the Virginia Beach Municipal Employees Federal Credit
Union next to Central Library or mailed to the police department's media
relations office at 2509 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, Va. 23456.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Virginia Beach police officer Richard DiNapoli, 35, will soon leave
the hospital after two weeks of treatment. His wife, Terry, is at
left.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC MOTORCYCLE INJURIES
DRUNKEN DRIVING VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT by CNB