Caltrans employees win six Medal of Valor awards

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Five Caltrans Employees Win Six Medal of Valor Awards

Then-Caltrans Director Laurie Berman and then-Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency Brian Annis pose with the five Caltrans employees who received Medal of Valor awards this spring. Shown from left are Thomas Britt, Benjamin Anderson, Michael Quinliven, Berman, Broderick Carmichael, Lonnie Swartout and Annis.

For most of us, the opportunity to be a hero never comes knocking. If by faint chance it does come knocking, many of us are too frightened to answer the door.

Last July, Caltrans Tree Maintenance Supervisor Michael Quinliven answered the door twice.

At a private ceremony this spring, Quinliven and four other Caltrans workers were presented with the Governor’s State Employee Medal of Valor Award. All five received silver awards, and Quinliven also got a gold. Ninety-nine men and women who work for the Department of Transportation have received the award since its inception in 1959.

Quinliven earned the Gold Medal of Valor on July 29, 2018, as the Ranch Fire erupted in Mendocino County. When flames jumped across Highway 20, Quinliven’s citation for heroism reads, he “drove right into fire” to see if he could help anyone.

After escorting a tanker truck carrying gasoline out of the smoke, he drove back into the conflagaration and came upon a vehicle parked on the side of the road. Honalee Newman and her kids were inside. Quinliven got out and went toward them. Here’s how the citation describes what happened next:

cellphone video shot by one of Honalee Newman

This image was taken from a cellphone video shot by one of Honalee Newman’s sons as their vehicle was caught in last summer’s Ranch Fire. Caltrans worker Michael Quinliven’s truck is in the background.

“Outside of his truck, he felt the raging heat from the fire and realized the true intensity of the flames. Shielding his head and face with only his hardhat and his arms, he was able to knock on Ms. Newman’s vehicle window and advised the mother and her three children to follow him. With near zero visibility, using only the center double yellow lines for guidance, he drove in front of the vehicle and guided them through the smoke and fire to safety.”

Not quite four weeks earlier, on July 2, Quinliven was off-duty and driving on northbound Highway 101 between Ukiah and Willits when he came upon what he assumed was an accident, and he got out of his vehicle to help. He discovered two men in a car who were slumped over with gunshot wounds. Ignoring the possibility that the shooter or shooters were still nearby, Quinliven tried his best to administer first aid to the victims, a father and son. Neither one survived.

Caltrans Electrician II Broderick Carmichael earned his Medal of Valor for something he did on March 16, 2017, in Hermosa Beach. The Greater Los Angeles setting was appropriate for what resembled a motion picture-worthy rescue: Carmichael lunged to grab and pull a coworker out of the path of a crash-catapulted car.

“She suffered injuries to her hip and foot,” Carmichael’s citation for the award reads. “However, without Mr. Carmichael’s heroic intervention, her injuries would likely have been far worse, if not fatal.”

The three other Caltrans employees who earned Medals of Valor were Highway Maintenance Worker Benjamin Anderson, Highway Maintenance Leadworker Thomas Britt and Maintenance Supervisor Lonnie Swartout. On March 1, 2018, Swartout was plowing snow at a turnout along Highway 299 in Trinity County when he noticed tire marks heading into the downward-sloping woods.