JACKSON MEN COME TO AID OF ACCIDENT VICTIMS

PATTON - Two Jackson men took on heroic proportions Tuesday when they administered first aid to and helped calm three accident victims after being the first to come upon a head-on collision in Bollinger County.

One victim is a Cape Girardeau man, John Miller, 30; the other victims, Eddie Stacy, 45, and Mary Perryman, 75, are both of Fredericktown.

All suffered serious injuries and were taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, said the Missouri Highway Patrol. A hospital spokeswoman described their conditions as stable.

The patrol reported the accident occurred at 9:45 a.m. on Route 72 one mile west of Patton when a van driven by Miller struck a car driven by Stacy head-on.

The heroes are Bill Bonney and Tom Bollinger, employees of Ellis Business Systems Inc. in Cape Girardeau. Bollinger, a service manager, said the two were driving to Lesterville to fix a copier when they came upon the accident. Lesterville is in Reynolds County.

"We didn't see it happen," said Bollinger, "but John Miller, one of the guys (injured), said we were the first ones there. He said it had just happened."

Bonney, a service technician, administered first-aid, Bollinger said, while he called the accident in on a two-way radio to Ellis Business Systems, where authorities were contacted.

Bonney said he administered the first-aid to all three but was afraid Stacy and Perryman were going to go into shock. Perryman had suffered a head injury, he said, and Stacy, who was pinned in the car because of its left side being smashed in, was very groggy.

He said he wasn't thinking of anything while administering the first aid.

"I just reacted. I was absolutely scared out of my mind, but I just reacted."

Bonney said he is in the Naval Reserve in Cape Girardeau and had learned first aid in the Navy, in which he spent five years in the regular forces. "All that boring stuff" that he had to drill on turned out to be critical to their lives, he said.

"If there's any advice I have to give anybody," he said, "I'd encourage (them) to learn CPR and first aid, because this came at us out of the blue."

Miller and Perryman were taken to St. Francis by Bollinger County Ambulance, while LifeBeat helicopter flew Stacy to the hospital, said ambulance service owner and paramedic Daniel Tucker.

Tucker hadn't known Bonney's name, but said he wanted to send him a thank-you note. He said Bonney had stopped the victims' bleeding.

He said he wasn't sure whether Bonney had saved the victims' lives. "He might have, or they might have lived anyway."

A patrol spokeswoman at Poplar Bluff said the van, driven west, skidded across the center line and struck the Stacy vehicle, which was eastbound. The patrol reported it had no additional information and that the accident report did not say whether Monday's snow had contributed to the accident.