The recent Claremont High School graduate left early that morning for Las Vegas to deliver supplies for one of his father's construction projects.
He was on the 15 Freeway, about 10 miles past Barstow, when he swerved right to avoid a piece of tire tread, overcorrected and veered left. When he hit the center divider, his truck rolled four times.
The cab collapsed on his head. Hargrave suffered a broken neck, broken shoulder bone, a fractured vertebrae and seriously damaged his spinal cord.
The accident left Hargrave - a star baseball player at Claremont High - paralyzed from the neck down.
Doctors initially gave him a 1 to 3 percent chance of walking again.
But in the six months since the accident, through rehabilitation five days a week, Hargrave has regained full motion in his arms, and again has feeling in his legs.
Last week he stood without assistance for five minutes.
"It hasn't brought me down," said Hargrave, 18. "It's more motivating me in my recovery, because I want to get back to doing what I was doing before the accident. Sitting around and sulking isn't going to accomplish anything."
Hargrave and his family recently started a foundation to assist others with spinal injuries in covering the financial burden of treatment.
A lifetime of treatment for a spinal cord injury averages $2.5 million, said Hargrave,
and only 55 to 60 percent of that cost is typically covered by health insurance.Hal Hargrave Sr. said that the foundation began after the family's "exposure to the spinal cord injury world. We have met so many families that are in need of help, financial help and emotional support."
The foundation, called the "Be Perfect" Foundation - named after a quote from "Friday Night Lights" that the younger Hargrave uses to model his life - has already helped several victims of spinal cord injuries in its first month.
"We've bought portable ramps for a home for another patient," said the elder Hargrave. "We paid the co-pay for a wheelchair for another patient so they could leave the hospital and go home. And that's just in the first 30 days."
The foundation has already raised about $50,000, said the younger Hargrave.
They are holding a fundraiser April 26 at the Claremont Club, where the foundation hopes to raise an additional $150,000.
The Claremont Club is working to install equipment on-site for spinal cord injury victims to work out. That is expected to be ready by April 1, said the younger Hargrave.
He has been doing his rehab work at Casa Colina in Pomona and at Project Walk in Carlsbad. The equipment at the Claremont Club will allow him to do workouts closer to home.
Hargrave, who initially planned to attend Cal State Long Beach, is now applying for admission to the University of La Verne, where he hopes to start in fall as a business major.
"Hal was given a 1 to 3 percent chance to walk again," his father said. "I truly believe, based on what we've seen in the last three months, that he will be walking again in the next one or two years."
