THE father of a man left in a coma after a hit-and-run near Chepstow has urged the driver of the van to come forward.

John Conibeer, 32, was left with life-changing injuries after the incident which took place on the A48 in Pwllmeyric in the early hours of Saturday 17th February, and since then has faced almost 40 hours of operations.

It is a long road to recovery for John and his family, who remains in an induced coma at Morriston Hospital in Swansea, as he still faces a number of operations.

John’s father Anthony, who spoke to the Beacon yesterday, has urged anyone who may have information to come forward.

“Why didn’t he hand himself in the day after,” he questioned.

The incident took place when a black Honda Civic, which John was a passenger in, collided with a wall on the A48.

Following the collision, a second vehicle, believed to be a dark-coloured Ford Transit van, unrelated to the first incident, collided with an occupant of the first vehicle outside of the damaged black Honda Civic. The van failed to stop at the scene.

“John’s in the car that has hit the wall, and he’s got out and the van’s hit him,” Anthony adds. “If I’d seen the car on the side of the road I’d have stopped.”

A female from the Newport area was subsequently arrested in relation to the initial collision and was bailed to appear at court.

Gwent Police believe a red Nissan Note may have driven past the scene of the incident after it took place, and would like to speak to the driver.

With police working hard to find the driver of the van, Anthony hopes they will be found soon.

“It’s a long stretch of road, and hopefully there may be some houses with CCTV footage of the van,” he said, saying police are monitoring footage of road traffic incidents.

As it stands Anthony’s posts on social media have been shared around 5,600 times, with countless people offering their support to the family. But “it’s a long, long road for us,” he says.

“It’s disgusting, everyone is saying how vile he [the van driver] is, leaving our John like that.”

Anyone with any information on this incident should call Gwent Police on 101 quoting log 44 17/02/18.