Caltrans Equipment Operator II

Department of Transportation

2/25/2007

Special Service Award (Silver)

On February 25, 2007, California Department of Transportation employees Eric Perkins and Arturo Arzaga were supervising a fourteen person volunteer worker program crew. They were removing debris and weeds from the shoulder of State Route 60 at Etiwanda Avenue, a high traffic area in Riverside County. At approximately 10:00 a.m., the crew gathered for a break around the department van when a drunken motorist, being pursued by the CHP, lost control of his car and crashed into the van. The sudden impact flipped the van on its side and forced it down an embankment, trapping a man underneath, injuring five people, and scattering the rest of the volunteer crew from the crash scene. Mr. Perkins and Mr. Arzaga immediately called 9-1-1 and assessed their crew for injuries. Despite the heavy traffic and risk to personal safety due to the van’s position on the embankment, Mr. Perkins and Mr. Arzaga, with the help of their non-injured crew members, physically lifted the van off their trapped co-worker and instructed a crew member to watch over him until the paramedics arrived. Mr. Arzaga then went to assist a woman who was unable to breathe, the impact of the car hitting the van had thrown her body forward and she was slammed, face down, into the ground. He stayed with her until paramedics arrived. Mr. Perkins and Mr. Arzaga kept their composure throughout the chaos of the accident and its aftermath by lending assistance to the injured and calming the rest of the volunteer crew who were in shock. As a result of their immediate actions to lift the van off and rescue the man underneath it, the crew member survived. Mr. Arzaga’s assistance contributed to the woman’s survival in spite of suffering severe injuries. Four other crew members were treated for minor injuries and released.