 On the afternoon of September 3, 1957, Fontane finished a rehearsal for a television special at NBC and was driving to his home in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, when another motorist ran a red light and plowed into the driver's side of Fontane's sports car.It took rescue workers more than 2½ hours to extricate the singer from his vehicle; one person on the scene took his pulse and declared that he was dead.In fact, he was barely alive, and was rushed to the hospital where he remained in a coma, on the brink of death, for 30 days.