Crash happened near Livingston,
California
MILWAUKEE, Wis., Jan. 20,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- For We Energies workers, helping
people is their calling — they just didn't expect it would happen
2,000 miles away.
"We wrapped up our power restoration efforts in central
California and had just started
our trip home when a driver of an SUV lost control, shot across the
freeway median and went airborne down a 75-foot embankment," said
Jeb Loth, a We Energies operations
supervisor.
Loth and his co-workers in the five-truck convoy quickly and
safely pulled over on US-99 near Livingston, California, and jumped into
action. The group was uniquely qualified. Each person is skilled in
first aid and safety training.
Media can download soundbites and pictures from this link
"The SUV landed on its side in a pool of water," Loth recalled.
"Luckily we had easy access to a ladder and were able to get the
driver out and up the muddy embankment. If we had not seen the
crash, it's possible no one would have seen the vehicle down the
embankment."
As they got the driver into one of the trucks to wait for
paramedics, they experienced another near disaster. Two vehicles on
the freeway lost control, collided with each other and crashed into
a We Energies bucket truck that was pulled over on the side of the
road.
We Energies crews again jumped into action, providing aid until
first responders arrived.
"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.
The We Energies crews were part of a group of nearly 50 people
from We Energies and its sister company Wisconsin Public Service
(WPS) that traveled to California
earlier this month to help get the lights back on after a series of
strong storms.
The crews spent a few days in central California helping restore power to some of
the hundreds of thousands of people who lost service during the
high winds and pounding rain. The Wisconsin crews planned to spend two weeks on
restoration efforts, but were released over the weekend after an
expected strong storm did not materialize, and outages were quickly
restored.
About We Energies
We Energies serves more than 1.1 million electric customers
and 1.1 million natural gas customers in Wisconsin. We Energies is the trade name of
Wisconsin Electric Power Co. and Wisconsin Gas LLC, utility
subsidiaries of WEC Energy Group Inc. (NYSE: WEC). Visit We
Energies at we-energies.com and WEC Energy Group at
wecenergygroup.com.
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SOURCE We Energies