Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps paid tribute Saturday to two members who perished 20 years ago in a horrific ambulance crash on Route 25 in Aquebogue, as the ambulance rushed a cardiac patient from Jamesport to Central Suffolk Hospital.
Members of the ambulance corps and local fire departments gathered around the friends and family of EMT Heidi Behr and paramedic William Stone outside the corps’ Osborn Avenue headquarters to mark the sad occasion. The ceremony included prayers and personal remembrances, the placement of a memorial wreath and concluded with a flyover by a Suffolk County Police helicopter.
May 3, 2005 was a bright, sunny day, much like yesterday, when Behr, 23, and Stone, 30, responded to a call for an elderly Aquebogue man with chest pains. They were treating him in the ambulance as it traveled west on Route 25 in Aquebogue, en route to the Riverhead hospital, when the ambulance swerved to avoid a dump truck that failed to yield the right of way and turned in front of the emergency vehicle. The ambulance crashed into a tree, seriously injuring Behr and Stone, who both succumbed to their injuries at area hospitals. Both their patient, 65, and the ambulance driver, survived.
And just like that, two bright lights went out.
“Twenty years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long,” Kimberly Pokorny, RVAC past president, who knew both Behr and Stone well. She eulogized both, recalling in heartfelt remarks their commitment and compassion as first responders.
“Today we remember and celebrate two extraordinary individuals who gave everything in the service of others,” Pokorny said.
“Heidi was more than a responder. She was a symbol of what is best in all of us: selflessness, courage and unwavering dedication to helping others,” Pokorny said.
“She showed us what true dedication looks like. She showed us what sacrifice means. And she showed us how one person, with a heart full of compassion, can leave a mark that lasts far beyond a single shift, a single night, or even a single lifetime,” Pokorny said.
“As we mark 20 years without her, we also mark 20 years with her— because her spirit has never left the hearts of those she served or those left behind who serve in her honor,” Pokorny said.
Stone was a mentor, a strong leader, always a calm presence in chaos, she continued.
“To those he helped train, Bill wasn’t just a mentor, he was a guide — someone who took the time to explain not just how to do the job but why it mattered,” she said. “He showed young EMTs that technical skill meant nothing without heart, that service without compassion was incomplete.
“And on that fateful afternoon, Bill was right where he had always wanted to be — answering the call. Doing the job. He gave his life in service of others not because he had to, but because that was who he was,” Pokorny said.
“Today, we don’t just remember Bill Stone for how he died. We remember him for how he lived, for the countless lives he touched, for the patients he comforted, for the colleagues he inspired,” said Pokorny.
“When he was on a call, you knew you were in steady hands,” she said.
“He lives on in every paramedic who pauses to explain something to a trainee, in every first responder who puts their patient first — in every person who remembers that this job is not just about medicine, it’s about humanity.” Pokorny said.
Addressing the families of both fallen members, Pokorny said: “We carry your grief with you. But we also carry your pride. Heidi and Bill were , and always will be heroes — not only because of how they died, but because of how they lived.”
Behr’s parents, June and John Behr of Cutchogue, her son Jared, 21, who was just 15 months old when his mother died, her sister Dana, and other family members attended the ceremony, as did Stone’s mother and stepfather, Anne and Dennis Ryan of Stony Brook.
After the ceremony, June Behr and Anne Ryan tearfully embraced and leaned on each other as they walked to the memorial outside the headquarters, dedicated in 2013 for the 10-year anniversary of their children’s deaths.
June Behr said the outpouring of support in the local community and beyond has been moving and uplifting.
“I have such mixed emotions,” she said. “It still hurts like hell,” she said. “It still sucks.”
Anne Ryan agreed. “Yes, it sucks, it really does.”
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
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