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Munson: Compassion follows deadly collision in northwest Iowa
​
Kyle Munson, kmunson_at_dmreg.com
12:05 p.m. CST December 8, 2014
(Photo: Special to the Register)
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SIOUX CITY, Ia. – I expected Ryan Malone, besides his utter sorrow, most of
all to be angry that his mother and aunt died in the Nov. 22 car crash that
also nearly killed his dad and sister in northwest Iowa.
Instead, I was overwhelmed by his compassion.
Malone's sister, Jess, 37, woke up from her coma on Thanksgiving with a
pair of broken legs, among other severe injuries.
Malone's father, Larry, 70, miraculously walked away from the mangled GMC
Sierra pickup that he had been driving with the three women as passengers.
But he struggles just to keep it together each day as he reels from the
shock and grief.
The driver, Shishay Gidey, 53, still clings to life in an Omaha
hospital.(Photo: Special to the Register)
Malone and his family are heartbroken. But the 39-year-old Air Force and
Army veteran also "can't feel anything other than just the same sorrow" for
the four men in the SUV that swerved in front of his family that Saturday
afternoon on a flat stretch of highway east of Sloan. The head-on collision
immediately killed five of the eight people involved. It was the deadliest,
most gruesome wreck that many seasoned law officers and first responders
had ever seen.
The four men in the other vehicle, a Chevy Trailblazer, were members of
Sioux City's small but growing Eritrean community — primarily refugees from
the small East African country of 6 million situated between Ethiopia and
the Red Sea.
The driver, Shishay Gidey, 53, still clings to life in an Omaha hospital.
He was burned and has lost a leg. He and his wife have two children in
Sioux City with a third on the way.
Sioux City's community of perhaps 200 Eritreans of modest means is "very
sad," said Almaz Yohannes, whose brother-in-law, Kibrom Gebremicael, died
in the wreck. She immigrated in 1990 and lived in Atlanta before moving to
Sioux City six years ago.
The SUV driven by Gidey.(Photo: Special to the Register)
Malone's military experience and more than seven years in Iraq and
Afghanistan as a contractor specializing in information technology trained
him, he said, to compartmentalize his emotions to help cope with tragedy.
But it also made him sensitive to the need to reach across cultural divides.
"Accidents happen," Malone said last week at Mercy Medical Center here,
where Jess continued to recover before a transfer to Des Moines. "I can't
believe that the other driver set out that day to have this happen. It's
one of those things where you don't get to pick or the day when these
things happen."
The truck driven by Larry Malone.(Photo: Special to the Register)
So in the aftermath one family reaches out to a community in need that many
Sioux City residents and most Iowans didn't even know exists. The Malones
were moved by a plea for help in local media to help the Eritreans pay for
funerals and expensive transportation back to Africa.
"I think sometimes we take it for granted we have insurance and a whole
network of people and friends and systems to take care of us," Malone said.
"And when there are people who don't have that network that are trying to
figure out how to get through the situation, that's just also something
that really struck a chord with us."
Bahta Gebremedhen(Photo: Special to the Register)
To explain the wreck:
The Malone foursome that Saturday — Larry and his wife, Myrna, in the front
passenger seat, with daughter Jess and Myrna's sister, Donna Timm of Ute,
80, sitting in back — were headed east. They had spent the day at a craft
fair in Sioux City.
Gidey and his friends — Gebremicael, 46; Yohanes Tesfamariam, 34; and Bahta
Gebremedhen, 60 — were headed west on their way back from picking up a load
of lamb meat in Denison.
Kibrom Gebremicael(Photo: Special to the Register)
The Iowa State Patrol investigation of the wreck is expected to continue
for several weeks, but many details already are clear.
The SUV driven by Gidey, who was licensed and had liability insurance,
slipped onto the shoulder for some reason and then swerved back onto the
highway in an over-correction — into the path of the Malones' truck.
A sad coincidence: The wreck at 3:23 p.m. that Saturday at mile marker 3 on
Iowa Highway 141 east of Sloan happened to be in front of the American
Dreams collision shop on Bruce Nance's acreage.
Yohanes Tesfamariam(Photo: Special to the Register)
"I thought my house blew up because the concussion went through my shop,"
Nance said.
The wreck happened so fast that Nance never heard a screech of brakes. The
massive impact's vibration rattled the shop's 5-inch-thick concrete floor
and the frame of the car that Nance was working on.
He and others who stopped to help almost couldn't believe the horrible
scene. The entire motor and nose of the Malones' pickup truck had been
sheared off and shoved back beneath the cab, which remained intact.
The SUV caught fire, with Gidey trapped in the driver's seat. Nance and
others scrambled for fire extinguishers as others shoveled dirt to try to
combat the flames.
Malone was working on naval computer systems in Los Angeles when he got
word of the wreck and immediately arranged to fly home.
His mother was cremated, but her funeral won't be held — probably at
Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines — until Jess is well enough to
attend.
Buy Photo
Ryan Malone, 39, of Des Moines, wants to help the families of the accident
victims involved in a traffic accident, which also killed his mother, that
happened on a stretch of rural Sioux City highway in November.(Photo: Bryon
Houlgrave/The Register)
Timm's funeral was last weekend in Ute.
The three Eritreans who died were mourned in a combined service Saturday at
a Sioux City funeral home.
Erica DeLeon has watched this local, primarily Orthodox Christian Eritrean
community grow from a handful a decade ago to perhaps 200 residents, the
vast majority of them refugees. Eritrea's authoritarian regime has enforced
indefinite military conscription of citizens and recently emphasized that
it would punish any asylum-seekers who returned.
Since 2008, DeLeon has been executive director of the Mary J. Treglia
Community House, which was founded 93 years ago to help immigrants.
Many Eritreans work at the Tyson meat processor in nearby Dakota City, Neb.
They're among an influx of other Africans, including about 2,000 Somalis
and 750 Ethiopians.
Pierce Street on the north side of downtown provides a small revue of
international-themed businesses. The Eritreans also tend to live within a
single large apartment complex along Pierce.
Woldu Habte, Gebremicael's uncle now living in Canada, arrived in town in
recent days to help his fellow Eritreans sort through the necessary piles
of paperwork.
Tsegay Ghebre, another Tyson employee, helped open the "Eritrean Community"
account at local Wells Fargo banks where funds are being collected to help
fund funerals and the families who have lost their heads of household.
This accident is the first time, DeLeon said, that local Eritreans have
realized the need for life insurance in America. The Eritreans are "just in
awe" of the cost of death here.
"I keep telling them life insurance is important," Yohannes said.
The Malones and Gidey and his friends might have been nothing more than
anonymous fellow Iowans who whooshed past each other on the highway, never
to meet. But their worlds collided, and the response has been a heartening
example of what it means to stay compassionate in the face of tragedy.
"This is what she would have wanted — for us to try and help," Malone said
of his late mother.
"We all feel the same way, no matter where you are," he said. "Mothers
grieve their sons. Children grieve their parents. And it's one common
thread within humanity, no matter what happens, that we miss those that are
lost to us. It's just part of what makes us human, no matter what the other
circumstances are."
Kyle Munson can be reached at 515-284-8124 or kmunson_at_dmreg.com. See more
of his columns and video at DesMoinesRegister.com/KyleMunson. Connect with
him on Facebook (/KyleMunson) and Twitter (_at_KyleMunson).
How to help:
An account for donations to the Eritrean families of Sioux City that are
trying to cope with the Nov. 22 crash has been established under the name
"Eritrean Community"
at the local Wells Fargo bank, 600 Fourth St., Sioux City, IA 51101.
(Phone: 712-277-7138.)
Buy Photo
Bruce Nance, who owns a body repair shop on Highway 141 south of Sioux
City, stands on the highway near the site of a fatal accident that happened
in late November, and killed five.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave, The Register)
Kyle Munson, kmunson_at_dmreg.com12:05 p.m. CST December 8, 2014
(Photo: Special to the Register)
SIOUX CITY, Ia. – I expected Ryan Malone, besides his utter sorrow, most of
all to be angry that his mother and aunt died in the Nov. 22 car crash that
also nearly killed his dad and sister in northwest Iowa.
Instead, I was overwhelmed by his compassion.
Malone's sister, Jess, 37, woke up from her coma on Thanksgiving with a
pair of broken legs, among other severe injuries.
Malone's father, Larry, 70, miraculously walked away from the mangled GMC
Sierra pickup that he had been driving with the three women as passengers.
But he struggles just to keep it together each day as he reels from the
shock and grief.
The driver, Shishay Gidey, 53, still clings to life in an Omaha
hospital.(Photo: Special to the Register)
Malone and his family are heartbroken. But the 39-year-old Air Force and
Army veteran also "can't feel anything other than just the same sorrow" for
the four men in the SUV that swerved in front of his family that Saturday
afternoon on a flat stretch of highway east of Sloan. The head-on collision
immediately killed five of the eight people involved. It was the deadliest,
most gruesome wreck that many seasoned law officers and first responders
had ever seen.
The four men in the other vehicle, a Chevy Trailblazer, were members of
Sioux City's small but growing Eritrean community — primarily refugees from
the small East African country of 6 million situated between Ethiopia and
the Red Sea.
The driver, Shishay Gidey, 53, still clings to life in an Omaha hospital.
He was burned and has lost a leg. He and his wife have two children in
Sioux City with a third on the way.
Sioux City's community of perhaps 200 Eritreans of modest means is "very
sad," said Almaz Yohannes, whose brother-in-law, Kibrom Gebremicael, died
in the wreck. She immigrated in 1990 and lived in Atlanta before moving to
Sioux City six years ago.
The SUV driven by Gidey.(Photo: Special to the Register)
Malone's military experience and more than seven years in Iraq and
Afghanistan as a contractor specializing in information technology trained
him, he said, to compartmentalize his emotions to help cope with tragedy.
But it also made him sensitive to the need to reach across cultural divides.
"Accidents happen," Malone said last week at Mercy Medical Center here,
where Jess continued to recover before a transfer to Des Moines. "I can't
believe that the other driver set out that day to have this happen. It's
one of those things where you don't get to pick or the day when these
things happen."
The truck driven by Larry Malone.(Photo: Special to the Register)
So in the aftermath one family reaches out to a community in need that many
Sioux City residents and most Iowans didn't even know exists. The Malones
were moved by a plea for help in local media to help the Eritreans pay for
funerals and expensive transportation back to Africa.
"I think sometimes we take it for granted we have insurance and a whole
network of people and friends and systems to take care of us," Malone said.
"And when there are people who don't have that network that are trying to
figure out how to get through the situation, that's just also something
that really struck a chord with us."
Bahta Gebremedhen(Photo: Special to the Register)
To explain the wreck:
The Malone foursome that Saturday — Larry and his wife, Myrna, in the front
passenger seat, with daughter Jess and Myrna's sister, Donna Timm of Ute,
80, sitting in back — were headed east. They had spent the day at a craft
fair in Sioux City.
Gidey and his friends — Gebremicael, 46; Yohanes Tesfamariam, 34; and Bahta
Gebremedhen, 60 — were headed west on their way back from picking up a load
of lamb meat in Denison.
Kibrom Gebremicael(Photo: Special to the Register)
The Iowa State Patrol investigation of the wreck is expected to continue
for several weeks, but many details already are clear.
The SUV driven by Gidey, who was licensed and had liability insurance,
slipped onto the shoulder for some reason and then swerved back onto the
highway in an over-correction — into the path of the Malones' truck.
A sad coincidence: The wreck at 3:23 p.m. that Saturday at mile marker 3 on
Iowa Highway 141 east of Sloan happened to be in front of the American
Dreams collision shop on Bruce Nance's acreage.
Yohanes Tesfamariam(Photo: Special to the Register)
"I thought my house blew up because the concussion went through my shop,"
Nance said.
The wreck happened so fast that Nance never heard a screech of brakes. The
massive impact's vibration rattled the shop's 5-inch-thick concrete floor
and the frame of the car that Nance was working on.
He and others who stopped to help almost couldn't believe the horrible
scene. The entire motor and nose of the Malones' pickup truck had been
sheared off and shoved back beneath the cab, which remained intact.
The SUV caught fire, with Gidey trapped in the driver's seat. Nance and
others scrambled for fire extinguishers as others shoveled dirt to try to
combat the flames.
Malone was working on naval computer systems in Los Angeles when he got
word of the wreck and immediately arranged to fly home.
His mother was cremated, but her funeral won't be held — probably at
Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines — until Jess is well enough to
attend.
Buy Photo
Ryan Malone, 39, of Des Moines, wants to help the families of the accident
victims involved in a traffic accident, which also killed his mother, that
happened on a stretch of rural Sioux City highway in November.(Photo: Bryon
Houlgrave/The Register)
Timm's funeral was last weekend in Ute.
The three Eritreans who died were mourned in a combined service Saturday at
a Sioux City funeral home.
Erica DeLeon has watched this local, primarily Orthodox Christian Eritrean
community grow from a handful a decade ago to perhaps 200 residents, the
vast majority of them refugees. Eritrea's authoritarian regime has enforced
indefinite military conscription of citizens and recently emphasized that
it would punish any asylum-seekers who returned.
Since 2008, DeLeon has been executive director of the Mary J. Treglia
Community House, which was founded 93 years ago to help immigrants.
Many Eritreans work at the Tyson meat processor in nearby Dakota City, Neb.
They're among an influx of other Africans, including about 2,000 Somalis
and 750 Ethiopians.
Pierce Street on the north side of downtown provides a small revue of
international-themed businesses. The Eritreans also tend to live within a
single large apartment complex along Pierce.
Woldu Habte, Gebremicael's uncle now living in Canada, arrived in town in
recent days to help his fellow Eritreans sort through the necessary piles
of paperwork.
Tsegay Ghebre, another Tyson employee, helped open the "Eritrean Community"
account at local Wells Fargo banks where funds are being collected to help
fund funerals and the families who have lost their heads of household.
This accident is the first time, DeLeon said, that local Eritreans have
realized the need for life insurance in America. The Eritreans are "just in
awe" of the cost of death here.
"I keep telling them life insurance is important," Yohannes said.
The Malones and Gidey and his friends might have been nothing more than
anonymous fellow Iowans who whooshed past each other on the highway, never
to meet. But their worlds collided, and the response has been a heartening
example of what it means to stay compassionate in the face of tragedy.
"This is what she would have wanted — for us to try and help," Malone said
of his late mother.
"We all feel the same way, no matter where you are," he said. "Mothers
grieve their sons. Children grieve their parents. And it's one common
thread within humanity, no matter what happens, that we miss those that are
lost to us. It's just part of what makes us human, no matter what the other
circumstances are."
Kyle Munson can be reached at 515-284-8124 or kmunson_at_dmreg.com. See more
of his columns and video at DesMoinesRegister.com/KyleMunson. Connect with
him on Facebook (/KyleMunson) and Twitter (_at_KyleMunson).
How to help:
An account for donations to the Eritrean families of Sioux City that are
trying to cope with the Nov. 22 crash has been established under the name
"Eritrean Community"
at the local Wells Fargo bank, 600 Fourth St., Sioux City, IA 51101.
(Phone: 712-277-7138.)
Buy Photo
Bruce Nance, who owns a body repair shop on Highway 141 south of Sioux
City, stands on the highway near the site of a fatal accident that happened
in late November, and killed five.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave, The Register)
Received on Mon Dec 08 2014 - 20:49:18 EST