Equipment Operator II

Department of Transportation

4/2/2020

Special Service Award (Silver)

On Thursday April 2, 2020 at 6:45am, while off duty and on his way to work, Caltrans Equipment Operator II James Burkhouse came upon a major two vehicle head-on traffic collision. A small passenger vehicle and a fully loaded tractor trailer collided on State Route 18 in the rural town of Lucerne Valley, California. As the first to arrive, and leveraging his previous experience as a paid call firefighter, Mr. Burkhouse instinctively and without hesitation looked past the chaos and wrecked vehicles and went to work immediately triaging and assessing the involved victims. The first vehicle that Mr. Burkhouse came upon was a small passenger vehicle with massive front end and side end damage. The vehicle also had major intrusions into the driver’s side of the vehicle, pushing the firewall of the vehicle and the steering wheel into the driver. Upon completing a trauma assessment, Mr. Burkhouse determined that the driver was struggling to breathe, had massive hemorrhaging, a compound long bone fracture, and many other life-threatening injuries. An off-duty Mercy Air helicopter paramedic arrived with medical equipment and Mr. Burkhouse instinctively assisted the off-duty paramedic with applying several tourniquets on the driver, holding the driver’s neck in a neutral position, and using a bag valve mask to breathe for the driver. It took San Bernardino County Firefighters roughly an hour and a half to remove the driver from the wreckage once they arrived on scene. The driver was air-lifted to a local area trauma center where he was in a coma for several months following many emergency surgeries. The victim has since made a miraculous recovery. The driver happened to be James Burkhouse’s fellow state employee and Lead Worker. He survived this life changing accident because of the quick and decisive actions that Mr. Burkhouse chose to employ that morning at the accident scene. With no regard for his own safety, Mr. Burkhouse went above and beyond the call of duty. The State of California takes great pride in presenting the Silver Medal of Valor to Department of Transportation Equipment Operator II James Richard Burkhouse.