A We Energies crew went to California to restore power. On the way home, they rescued a woman after a terrifying traffic crash.
Sometimes, you're just in the right place at the right time.
That was the case for a crew of We Energies repair workers who, as they were beginning their drive home on Saturday after helping to restore power in central California, saw a woman lose control of her SUV as she passed their five-truck convoy on a wet highway and plunge down a 75-foot embankment.
The We Energies employees, who had first aid and safety training, pulled over and scrambled down the embankment to SUV. They helped the woman out of the vehicle, which had landed on its side in a pool of water, got her back up to the road and treated her for minor injuries.
"Where this vehicle ended up it kind of blended in with the surroundings. There was an off-ramp there, but it was difficult to see the embankment," said Jeb Loth, a We Energies operations supervisor.
"There was a chance that if we weren't there she many never have been found for hours or days later."
After the workers got the woman into a truck to wait for emergency responders, two other drivers lost control of their vehicles and slammed into the We Energies truck at the end of the convoy. Team members again jumped into action to aid the drivers of those vehicles.
The crashes happened on U.S. 99, near Livingston, California in the heart of the state's Central Valley.
The crew was part of a team of about 50 We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. employees who arrived in California on Jan. 11 as part of a mutual aid effort to help Pacific Gas & Electric restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers after a series of violent storms battered the state.
They had expected to be in California for two weeks, but were released over the weekend after another strong storm did not materialize and outages from the previous storms were quickly addressed.
“We went to California to help. Obviously we did not expect to help in this way, but we are happy we were in the right place at the right time,” Loth said.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: We Energies crew saves woman in terrifying California traffic crash
