Riverhead ambulance remembers first aiders who were killed in an ambulance accident in 2005

The Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps paid tribute to two members on Saturday who died in a terrible outpatient accident on Route 25 20 years ago when the ambulance brought a heart patient from Jamesport to Central Suffolk Hospital.

Members of the Ambulance Corps and the local fire brigade gathered around the friends and the family of Emt Heidi Behr and paramedic William Stone in front of the Corps' headquarters of the Osborn Avenue to mark the sad occasion. The ceremony included prayers and personal memories, placing a commemorative wreath and closed with a transfer by a police helicopter by Suffolk County.

May 3, 2005 was a bright, sunny day, similar to yesterday, when Behr 23, and Stone (30) responded to a call for an older corner box with chest pain. They treated him in the ambulance when he drove to the west on the way to the Riverhead Hospital on Route 25 on Route 25 when the ambulance broke out to avoid a dump truck who did not deliver the occurrence in front of the emergency vehicle. The ambulance fell into a tree and seriously injured Behr and Stone, who both succumbed to their injuries in the hospitals in the region. Both their patient, 65 and the ambulance driver survived.

And so two light lights went out.

“Twenty years. It is hard to believe that it was so long ago,” Kimberly Pokorny, RVAC Past President, who knew both Behr and Stone well. She praised both and remembered from the heart that she noticed her commitment and compassion as a first aid.

“Today we remember and celebrate two extraordinary people who have given everything to others,” said Pokorny.

“Heidi was more than a response. She was a symbol of what is best in all of us: selflessness, courage and unshakable commitment to help others,” said Pokorny.

“She showed us what real commitment looks like. It showed us what victim means. And she showed us how a person with a heart full of compassion can leave a brand that lasts far beyond a single shift, a single night or even a single life,” said Pokorny.

“Since we mark for 20 years without her, we also mark with her for 20 years – because her spirit never left the hearts of those she served, or those who have been honored to them,” said Pokorny.

Stone was a mentor, a strong leader, always a quiet presence in chaos, she continued.

“For those he helped with training, Bill was not just a mentor, he was a guide – someone who took the time not only to do the job, but why it was important,” she said. “He showed young Emts that technical skills meant nothing without heart that the service was incomplete without compassion.

“And on this fateful afternoon, Bill was exactly where he always wanted to be – to answer the call. To do the job. He did not give his life in the service of others, not because he had to, but because he was,” said Pokorny.

“Today we don't just remember Bill Stone how he died. We remember him how he has been for the patients he has comforted for the countless life he touched for the colleagues inspired by him,” said Pokorny.

“When he had a call, they knew that they were in constant hands,” she said.

“He continues in every paramedic who explains a break in every first aider who puts her patient in the first place – in every person who remembers that this job is not just about medicine, but about humanity.” Said Pokorny.

Pokorny spoke to the families of both fallen members and said: “We carry their grief with themselves. But we also carry their pride. Heidi and Bill were and will always be heroes – not only because of their dying, but also because of the way they lived.”

Behr's parents, June and John Behr von Cutchogue, her son Jared, 21, who was only 15 months old when his mother died, took part in the ceremony, as well as Stone's mother and stepfather Anne and Dennis Ryan from Stony Brook.

After the ceremony, June Behr and Anne Ryan hugged and leaned together when they went to the memorial in front of the headquarters and in 2013 the death of their children were devoted to their children.

June Behr said the support of the support in the local community and beyond that was moving and uplifting.

“I have so mixed feelings,” she said. “It still hurts hell,” she said. “It's still shit.”

Anne Ryan agreed. “Yes, it's shit, it really does.”

Riverheadlocal Photos of Denise Civiletti