LITTLETON — The construction superintendent in the wheelchair wanted to meet the three grandmothers and the unemployed salesman who had helped save his life.
It’s been a month since Steven Bonifer was behind the wheel of his truck near Gateway Drive and Wildcat Reserve Parkway in Highlands Ranch. He was enjoying a brilliant, blue-sky day until he hit a sport utility vehicle head-on. The father of two young children was pinned inside his truck, and the flames rising from the engine were threateningly close.
Patricia Prince, Marilou Foley, Sara Lebofsky and James Craft stopped to help.
Their actions saved Bonifer’s life, and Thursday at Littleton Adventist Hospital, Bonifer thanked them and the emergency workers who responded to the accident.
“These people kept me really calm and made me feel like the accident wasn’t as bad as it really was,” he said. “They don’t know me from anyone else — but to jump in a truck that is on fire with a person who is a wreck — is just amazing.”
The three grandmothers were on their way to Prince’s birthday party. The date was Jan. 19.
The women asked that their ages not be published. “We are three tough grandmothers,” Prince said.
Prince saw the collision and pulled in behind Bonifer’s truck, and the women ran into the thick smoke.
As she approached the truck, Lebofsky heard Bonifer screaming for help. His face was pushed up to the windshield, and flames were rising from the engine compartment.
Others who stopped to help gave the women fire extinguishers, and they kept the flames from eating through the firewall and into the passenger compartment.
Craft, 51, arrived about the same time and pried the truck’s door open. “I told him he wasn’t going to die and kept blowing oxygen into his mouth.”
Bonifer, whose injured legs were crushed beneath the melting dashboard, struggled to pull a knife from his pocket. Prince took the blade and sliced the seat belt away from his body.
But Bonifer, 37, was jammed too tightly into the truck cab. They couldn’t get him out.
Peter Tremewan, 35, an off-duty member of the South Metro Fire Rescue Authority, arrived in time to unload three more extinguishers, bringing the total to seven. When the last one was empty, he began shoveling dirt onto the blaze.
Douglas County sheriff’s deputies arrived. Then firefighters and paramedics from Littleton and South Metro got to the scene.
“We were sure glad to see the fire department when they rolled up,” said Douglas County sheriff’s Sgt. Rich Taylor.
The 24-year-old driver of the Ford Explorer that was the other vehicle in the crash was taken to the hospital for observation.
Littleton Fire Rescue presented the three women and Craft with an award for heroism.
Bonifer was taken to Littleton Adventist Hospital with a dislocated ankle, a compound leg fracture, a crushed heel, broken ribs and other injuries.
He returned home last week and is expected to be walking within three months.
His wife, Nancy, 40, attended the ceremony with their children Dillon, 5, and Kylie, 2.
She said: “I know it could have been a lot worse, and we are glad to have him home.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
