Officer

California Highway Patrol

1/10/2004

Special Act Award (Gold)

California Highway Patrol Officer Jason Lee Peavy, on January 10, 2004, performed an act of heroism at risk to his personal safety in an attempt to rescue a victim from a vehicle submersed in the icy waters of the California Aqueduct. At 3:53 p.m., Officer Peavy was on routine patrol in Los Angeles County, when an unidentified citizen advised him of a serious accident that had just occurred on State Route 138 (Pearbloossom Highway) near 96th Street. Officer Peavy immediately advised the Los Angeles Communications Center of this report and responded to the collision scene. Officer Peavy arrived at the scene approximately two minutes later and noted physical evidence which indicated the involved vehicle had crashed through numerous objects (sign posts, guard rail, chain link fence, telephone pole) and came to rest underneath the murky waters of the California Aqueduct. Numerous witnesses advised Officer Peavy that the driver was still inside the vehicle and pointed to an area in the middle of the aqueduct where bubbles continued to rise to the surface. Fearing for the life of the unknown driver, Officer Peavy acted quickly and fashioned an improvised life line out of two fifty foot lengths of rope. Officer Peavy removed his gun belt, boots and ballistic vest and tied one end of the rope to a pole at the edge of the Aqueduct. Officer Peavy then tied the other end of the rope around his waist and without hesitation heroically dove into the ice cold, swift moving Aqueduct water. Despite the strong current, Officer Peavy swam to a position over the rising bubbles and dove down. Officer Peavy struggled for several moments, but due to the dark murky water and strong current, he could not locate the submerged vehicle. Upon resurfacing, Officer Peavy realized he had been swept downstream award from the vehicle. Officer Peavy attempted the rescue a second time and swam against the current to a position over the rising bubbles. Officer Peavy dove under again, but still could not reach or see the submerged vehicle. After this second attempt, Officer Peavy was pulled back to the waters edge and assisted out of the Aqueduct by an assisting CHP Officer, Jeremy Linson. Unfortunately, the driver of the submerged vehicle did not survive the collision.