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Tue, December 10, 2002
Little heroes Boys get help for fathers following car wreck
Michelle Kann, Times Record News
BURKBURNETT- Burkburnett fourth-graders Blake Arbogast and Tyler Galliton are typical 9-year-old boys.
They love football. They like to play the game "Trouble." They play with flashlights, shining beams into each other's windows across the neighborhood at night.
They watch the TV show "ER" often, enthralled by the life-saving scenarios.
But early Sunday morning, the two boys put their childhood games aside when confronted with a real-life emergency on a hunting trip in Wilbarger County.
Blake's stepfather, Lloyd Kahler, was driving a Jeep Wrangler on Texas 240 toward Crowell. Tyler and his father, Jerry Galliton, were along for the early morning excursion along the Pease River.
It was around 5:30 a.m., the countryside was blanketed in a heavy fog.
The boys were sitting in the backseat.
"I was just about asleep when I felt a jolt," Tyler said.
According to DPS Trooper Jeff Hass, the driver attempted to turn onto a service road entering U.S. Highway 287. Kahler overcorrected, causing the vehicle to hit a slightly elevated section and overturn, Hass said.
The vehicle went into a roll, causing the Jeep's removable top to spring off. All four of the vehicle's occupants were thrown
After the vehicle rolled nearly two times, Blake and Tyler started looking for their fathers in the cold darkness.
"I had butterflies," Blake said. "It was in the middle of nowhere, and you couldn't see anything."
The boys located their fathers but realized that the men were hurt and couldn't stand up. Tyler said he decided to call his mother.
"I tried to find his cell phone. I looked in his pocket and around," Tyler said. "There was stuff all over the place."
The boys located a large flashlight and began to flash it up on to the highway, trying to get assistance from a passing driver.
"We would try to shine it in their face so they know that we are here," Tyler said.
"And that we needed help," Blake said.
While trying to stop a passing motorist, they saw a spark of light coming from the jeep. Again, the boys used their quick thinking to prevent a possible problem.
"We got our Gatorade and poured it on there to stop it," Tyler said.
Within minutes, a driver stopped who let Tyler use her cell phone to call his mother.
"She told us to warm up in her car until they got there," he said. "We don't even know her name."
Both fathers suffered serious injuries from the accident. Kahler, who already has a prosthetic knee, broke both his legs. After being taken to Wilbarger General Hospital in Vernon and later to the United Regional Health Care System 11th Street campus in Wichita Falls, he was transferred to a Dallas facility for further treatment.
Galliton sustained head injuries and is currently at the URHCS 11th Street campus. He is in stable condition, according to a hospital representative.
The boys suffered only minor cuts.
Billy Arbogast, Blake's older brother, said the two boys are always having adventures in their neighborhood.
"It is easy to see how they acted like that because they play like that all the time - always that someone is hurt and they have to help," he said. "This time they stepped up and did what they had to do."
Blake's grandfather, Bill Foster, said the fathers were lucky to have quick-thinking sons.
"They wouldn't have survived if it would have been much longer because of the blood loss," he said.
Regional reporter Michelle Kann can be reached at (940) 763-7530 or by e-mail at kannm@wtr.com.
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