getting virtual consoles to work reliably with X

[Heliocentric]

I've admined a network of FreeBSD 5.4 desktops for a few months now,
and I've noticed that when an X server crashes hard, it will no longer
respond to the control-alt-fn sequences, and not pass them down to
whatever handler is called to switch virtual consoles.

When the crash isn't that bad, normally I'd just kill the wdm process
and let init respawn the display manager. But some days I don't have
the option to ssh in or use a serial console to kill the daemon, and
am forced to use the ACPI events to let the kernel shutdown and then
restart the machine. Not only that, but the other people responsible
for these machines are used to using the normal virtual console keys
to kill errant processes on one console that aren't responding to
signals.

So I'm wondering, is there a compile time option, patch for atkbd, or
configuration setting that will allow that driver to trap the
control-alt-fn sequences itself, before it gets passed up to X? Or am
I misunderstanding how the keyboard is handled in this situation?

I would appreciate any help on this matter. Thanks in advance.