THREE FRIENDS WERE FIRST ON THE SCENE WHEN A DRIVER COLLIDED WITH A TELEPHONE POLE

It’s hard to know how you’ll react in an emergency situation until you’re faced with one. Jon Becker, Grand Valley State ’15, now knows he can be counted on to do the right thing.

Becker, a nursing student, was driving a car with two friends at 10:30 p.m. when they witnessed a horrific collision between a car and a telephone pole. He pulled over and the three of them ran to help save the life of the other driver.

“My first instinct was just to pull over, get out and see what was going on,” Becker explained. “When I realized how severe the accident actually was, I kicked into a mode of not thinking but just acting.”

One of his friends was another nursing student and the third was pre-med, so the three of them were well-prepared to attend to the accident victim until an ambulance arrived at the scene.

“The telephone pole was disconnected from the ground,” Becker said. “It got broken in half and the pole was dangling by the wires above. It was sparking and flashing, and leaning over towards the ground. We wanted to get him out of there as soon as possible.”

The man was lying on his back inside the overturned car because he hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt. The trio was worried about moving him because of a potential spinal injury, but kept him alert until the ambulance workers could help them remove him from the wreckage.

Amazingly, the man escaped any major injuries and was released from the hospital the following day.

Becker says that his experience in SigEp and the values the Fraternity has instilled in him, in addition to his faith, helped him act so courageously. He pointed specifically to the cardinal principle of brotherly love.

“Even though I don’t know who that person is, it’s a person who needs to be loved,” he said. “It’s a person that could save somebody else’s life later on.”

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