Student survives crash, moves to head of class

Monday, June 7, 2004 | 11:34 a.m.

Standing in the bright sunshine of the academic quad at Cimarron-Memorial High School last week, senior Eric Reichenbacher pulls aside a lank of his light brown hair to reveal the scar running across the top of his head.

In a matter-of-fact voice, Reichenbacher explains that the scar marks the more than 50 staples used to close his scalp after surgeons "went in" and repaired the serious facial injuries he sustained in an August car wreck.

He touches the ridge over his right eyebrow -- that's the metal plate used to replace his shattered sinus bone. His nose, which now has a slight bump, was so badly broken it appeared to have been shoved over to one side.

And then Reichenbacher holds up the still-wrapped red graduation gown he'll don Tuesday when he walks the stage of the Thomas & Mack Center as one of his school's valedictorians.

"The fact that I'm here is because I was lucky," Reichenbacher said. "I was wearing my seatbelt, there was no brain trauma. Physically I'm pretty much the same person. What's changed is that I have a better outlook on life -- I appreciate what I have more and I know you have to make every day count because you never know when it's going to end."

To Cimarron-Memorial staff, as well as Reichenbacher's family and friends, his trip from University Medical Center's Trauma Center to class valedictorian involved a great deal more than luck.

"He never let anyone stop him from doing the absolute best he could do," said Cimarron-Memorial Assistant Principal Lori Stengel. "He's a guy without ego -- very modest and unassuming. He would be the last person to admit that what he's managed to do is remarkable."

On Aug. 19, Reichenbacher was driving home from studying with his girlfriend at about 11:30 p.m. While he waited at a stop sign at the corner of Cielo Vista Avenue and Pueblo Vista Drive, a white Ford Crown Victoria sedan barreled through the intersection.

"I saw a white car coming at me," Reichenbacher said. "It all seems like a dream after that."

According to the police report, witnesses saw the sedan accelerate as it shot past the stop sign at the four-way intersection. The sedan struck Reichbenbacher's black Honda Civic, crumpling the front end and sections of the driver's side as the car was pushed backward and up onto the sidewalk.

The sedan then spun and slid more than 150 feet before coming to a stop in some bushes. Two people were seen getting out of the sedan and fleeing the scene, police said. No one was ever caught and the sedan turned out to have been stolen, police said.

"I almost fell to my knees and screamed when I went to the junkyard and saw the damage to Eric's car," said his mother, Tamara Anderson. "I know God was watching, I firmly believe that."

Anderson said it was painful to watch her son's recovery -- not just from his physical injuries, but also the challenge of accepting that some of his life would not go back to the way it was before.

Reichenbacher had been a varsity tennis player as well as a scholar, his mother said.

"You can tell he was thinking, 'Here's my senior year, I want to play and I have to sit it out,' " Anderson said. "There was a little bit of anger about that, justifiably. But he worked through it and didn't let it make him bitter."

Alexis Kourafas, who has been dating Reichenbacher for two years, said she was surprised by the reaction of some of her schoolmates when Eric returned to school following his surgery.

While their friends were prepared for the sight of Reichenbacher's plastic nose brace, shaved head and battered eyes, other students stared or even made rude comments, Kourafas said.

"I actually came close to getting in a fight with one girl who was making fun of him," admitted Kourafas, who is one of her school's eight other valedictorians. "Eric definitely handled it all well -- better than I did."

For Reichenbacher, last summer's wreck is the past and an academic scholarship to the University of Arizona is the future.

"Like trees perched atop a high mountain ridge, we have been battered and tested for adulthood by the harshest of elements," he writes in his valedictorian address. "Instead of conceding to the relentless weather, we have stood strong and kept our heads up at a time when falling to the ground seemed a much more inviting end ... with continued perseverance and dedication, anything short of success and happiness for you seems impossible."