Flagstaff men described as heroes

The two brothers and their son/nephew were leaving the Alpine Ranchos area northeast of Flagstaff after a long day of work. The truck had just left the dirt road onto Forest Service Road 545 when Alfred Begay thought to reach for his seatbelt. It was an act never completed—he was startled to see a brown pick-up truck swerving back and forth across the roadway, hurtling towards the little white Toyota. Although Kahn desperately looked for an escape for himself and his family, it rapidly became clear there was no way to avoid an accident.

Laying in his hospital bed, Begay remembers the events of the evening of May 22. He remembers his brother looking back from the driver’s seat at his young son, reaching out towards the child in that protective gesture familiar to all parents. Luckily, when the vehicles collided, the Toyota did not roll. Begay apparently dislocated his right shoulder as he lunged repeatedly against the damaged door to escape, meanwhile shaking and shouting at his brother to awaken—Kahn had lost consciousness due to head injuries. Grabbing his nephew and repeatedly calling his brother, he exited the vehicle only to notice that the truck was on fire. He was also alarmed to learn that his left leg would lend no assistance.

“I had to grab it and swing it out—I knew it was either broken or dislocated,” he said. Begay dragged himself from the collision site, leading his nephew and brother to safety.

Both trucks caught fire, and the light from them attracted the attention of a neighbor approximately four miles away. Tom Hoover was working outside of his home when the trucks ignited. “I noticed a ball of fire rising above the trees,” Hoover stated. Initially he feared a forest fire, but in retrospect realized that he had seen the Kahn vehicle drive by a few minutes beforehand. Hoover jumped into his own vehicle and rushed to the scene only to find two good friends bleeding on the roadway.

Begay remembers laying on the pavement for quite some time, pressing towels to head lacerations, wondering if he was going to make it. Hoover was startled to realize that Begay, despite his crippling injuries, had ensured the safety of his brother and nephew. And although shocked to find the accident, Hoover immediately began rendering first aid assistance as well as search out the driver of the other vehicle, who had wandered, probably dazed, from the scene. “It took almost an hour to find him,” Hoover reported, a time which might have been shortened had Kahn and Begay not been injured.

Mary Jane Kahn was shocked when her friend and neighbor Tom Hoover showed up at her home. “I told her that there had been an accident, but that her boys were going to be okay,” Hoover said. Kahn expressed her deep gratitude to Hoover two days after the accident. She said that she considered him a real hero for getting to her sons, for lending assistance, and for the manner in which Hoover had come to her and her husband,

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Franklin. Had the message been delivered to her in any different manner, she feared she would have gone into shock. “He let us know right away that the boys were going to be okay.” Mary Kahn also said that she wanted to thank those people whose names she may never learn for the help they also gave to her sons.

As the driver of the brown truck, Thomas Reeder, lay in Intensive Care in the same hospital, and Begay worried aloud about Reeder’s condition. Although he would object to being declared a hero, he certainly has been treated as one as family and friends have paraded into his hospital room bearing gifts of flowers, stuffed animals and food. Poised over a plate of lasagna from one friend and a huge fruit salad from another, he recounted over and over the horrors of the accident.

According to Ranger John Portillo of Sunset Crater National Park, among the first to arrive on the scene of the accident, sees the incident as more than just a statement against driving under the influence. The message he adds is the importance of seat belts. “What I saw was a lot of head trauma, from hitting the windshield, that might not have happened had they been wearing seat belts.” Ironically for Kahn and Begay, Buckle Up America Week had begun the day of their accident.

Portillo isn’t sure how to deal with the problems of drinking and driving, but hopes that the accident will deliver a message to others. “Hopefully we are going to learn from this and there will be more awareness coming out of this.”

Coconino County Sheriff Joe Richards knows only too well that the period surrounding Memorial Day is especially dangerous where drinking and driving is concerned. “Traditionally, we have a lot of problems with alcohol and driving not only on our roadways, but also at our lakes. I would urge people to be cautions not to drink and drive, and to have a safe Memorial Day Weekend.”

Richards confirmed that Reeder was cited for driving under the influence. As of May 26, Flagstaff Medical Center reported that Reeder remained in critical care for injuries received as a result of the accident.

As for Kahn and Begay’s family and friends, they are all grateful that their loved ones survived, considering the fact that they did as a real miracle.