BNSF News

Achievement Award: Employees honored for saving accident victim's life

2013-07-08

A Signal gang's decision to drive to a nearby town for lunch put them in the right place at the right time to save one woman's life and assist three others involved in a head-on collision.

For their heroic efforts, the five Omaha, Neb.,-based employees received a BNSF Achievement Award. The honorees are Signalmen Shane Divoll, Brandon Eriksen, Chris Smith and Jordan Stutzman and Signal Foreman Terry Conley.

The gang was installing new equipment near Brainerd, Minn., on June 14 when the team decided to take a lunch break. As they drove toward town, they saw tire tracks and debris in the road, along with traffic sitting on both sides of the highway, and realized an accident had just occurred. They saw a car involved in the incident and helped the driver from the vehicle.

"We got him out of the car and made sure he was OK," Conley said.

While the BNSF employees rendered aid, another passerby called 9-1-1. They realized a second vehicle, a sports utility vehicle (SUV), had overturned and was on its side in a ditch filled with water.

"First, we thought it was just a driver and one passenger in the SUV," Conley said. "But then one of the guys realized that there was a second passenger in the SUV, a woman in the back seat, with her head in the water."

The team knew they needed to get the woman out right away. Though they normally would not have moved someone with possible spinal injuries, they realized she would drown if she didn't get out of the SUV quickly. Working together, the team removed her from the vehicle as gently as they could.

"She started breathing on her own pretty quickly, so we didn't have to perform CPR," Conley said. "We did have a couple of nurses who came down and wanted to help, but nobody wanted to get in the water."

By then, the ambulance and emergency responders arrived. The passenger who was most critically injured was stabilized in an ambulance until she could be transported to the hospital via life flight.

In the meantime, the driver of the SUV and the other passenger were still trapped in the vehicle. Smith talked with the two individuals to help keep them calm.

The SUV had to be stabilized before the driver and remaining passenger could be removed from the vehicle. According to the Brainerd Dispatch, Brainerd Fire Capt. Kurt Doree, the BNSF workers "were awesome and jumped right into the cold swampy water and helped."

About the BNSF Achievement Award

The BNSF Achievement Award, developed in 1999, recognizes Team BNSF members who demonstrate BNSF's Vision & Values and Evidences of Success and advance the Leadership Model. Their achievements positively impact BNSF customers, fellow employees, owners and the communities served by BNSF.

Scheduled and exempt employees are eligible for a BNSF Achievement Award and employees may win more than one award during their careers. Any BNSF supervisor may nominate a person for an award. Employees may be nominated using the BNSF Achievement Awards Nomination channel on the @BNSF > Communications subtab of employee.bnsf.com.

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For more information on the company and its transportation solutions, visit the BNSF Web site at www.bnsf.com