Penn. Emergency Responders Meet Crash Victim they Saved 22 Years Ago
April 10--Ray Bauer did something on New Year's Eve 1994 that he never did before, and hasn't done since, in his 38 years as a volunteer firefighter in Millcreek Township.
He went to the hospital to check on the victim of a traffic crash.
Bauer said he stood over 3-year-old Raymond Tiberia and silently said a prayer. He then left behind a stuffed animal, the kind that members of the Belle Valley Fire Department use to calm and comfort young children at accident scenes.
"I felt so bad for him," Bauer said.
He wasn't sure the boy would live.
But Ray Tiberia survived his horrific injuries, and learned to play the guitar along the way.
Bauer got a chance to see Tiberia, now 25, for the first time in more than 22 years on Friday evening. He stood near the back of the Villa Restaurant & Lounge in downtown Cambridge Springs, along with Millcreek Township police Cpl. Wayne Forcier and former Belle Valley fire chief John Rainey, and watched as the Canadian band Superfire, with Tiberia on guitar, tore through a 40-minute set as part of the Riverside Music Festival.
"I'm so proud of that kid," Bauer said, holding up his cellphone to film part of the show.
Rainey and Forcier had also responded on the afternoon of Dec. 30, 1994, to the 7100 block of Perry Highway, the scene of a reported two-vehicle accident. According to police reports, Tiberia and his family, who live outside of Toronto, were in Erie visiting family and were traveling north in a Saturn station wagon when a southbound vehicle tried to pass in a no-passing zone and collided with the Saturn on its passenger side as the Saturn attempted to swerve to avoid the crash.
Tiberia's mother, Amy, was injured in the crash. He suffered a severe head injury and was trapped in the vehicle.
Rainey, who was first on the scene, said he didn't think Tiberia was going to make it.
Forcier, who was in his first year on the Millcreek Township Police Department, recalled seeing Christmas presents in the Saturn.
"It was a very, very hard accident. Probably the only thing I lost sleep over in this job," he said.
Bauer called efforts to aid Tiberia a "perfect storm" because it seemed like everything was working against the rescue crews. It took a long time to open the crushed vehicle to gain access to Tiberia, and a medical helicopter was not immediately available, he said.
But just as firefighters were removing the boy from the Saturn, a medical helicopter landed, Rainey said. Tiberia was placed in it and was at the hospital within minutes, he said.
Rainey said he later received a letter from officials at the hospital, telling him that the decision to fly Tiberia, rather than transport him by ambulance, saved his life.
"I saved that letter. It still makes me cry," he said.
Rainey said the last time he saw Tiberia was when he was being removed from the wrecked Saturn. He lost touch with Tiberia's family after the court proceedings for Timothy Davis, the man accused of causing the crash.
Davis, who lived in Crawford County at the time of the crash, pleaded no contest in October 1995 to aggravated assault, drunken driving and other charges and was later sentenced to six to 22 years in state prison.
Tiberia was a young teenager when his parents got him a guitar.
The boy, who had suffered a significant brain injury in the 1994 crash, wasn't using one of his hands, Amy Tiberia said.
"So we bought him a guitar. At least he could strum it," she said.
Tiberia said he has a very musical family, and has always loved music.
"I got a guitar, and when I picked it up and played it, I loved the sound," he said.
About seven years ago Tiberia, who is mostly self-taught on guitar, joined Superfire. The band was created in 2007 by music therapist William Murray at the urging of some of his special needs students who wanted to start a rock band. With the donation of some musical equipment, the band was launched as a 10-week pilot program, he said.
"I had no idea that eight or nine years later we'd be touring in the states," Murray, who plays bass in the group, said after Friday night's show. "We started putting some songs together, put on a small little concert in the gymnasium, and then it just blew up."
Superfire, whose members are now in their mid-20s, write their own music and have recorded two albums. They also do a school program where each of the members talk about their disability and play music. The assemblies teach kids how to interact with someone a little different from them, and "it's amazing," Murray said.
"It's a beautiful thing," Amy Tiberia said of her son's talent. "Music saved him. I don't know where he'd be. It's integral to his life."
After Superfire wrapped up its set at the Villa in Cambridge Springs Friday night, Tiberia turned around to turn off his guitar, showing the cheering crowd a collection of patches on the back of his jean vest. The collection included a patch of the Belle Valley Fire Department.
Tiberia then walked across the room to meet the three men who helped save his life.
After chatting with Bauer, Rainey and Forcier, and posing for a few photos, Tiberia left to stow his equipment. Rainey talked about how, at the end of each of the emergency medical technician training classes he teaches, he discusses that horrible two-vehicle accident on Perry Highway on Dec. 30, 1994.
"The good lord was with us," he said, gazing in Tiberia's direction.
Tim Hahn can be reached at 870-1731 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNhahn.
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