District: Headquarters
Contact: Edward Barrera
Sacramento — California today recognized five Caltrans employees with the Governor’s State Employee Medal of Valor, the highest honor bestowed to public servants who performed extraordinary acts of heroism above and beyond the normal call of duty and at great risk to their own life.
“We are extremely proud of these five Caltrans workers who courageously risked their own lives to provide life-saving service to their community. Today, all of Caltrans joins Governor Gavin Newsom in honoring and thanking them for their selfless acts to help others."
Receiving the Silver Medal of Valor:
- John Bedolla, District 8 Highway Maintenance Worker, and Isai Camino, District 8 Highway Maintenance Leadworker, for courageous actions taken to rescue a mother and her child from an overturned vehicle on Interstate 15 on January 7, 2024.
- Vernon Ladd, retired District 6 Landscape Maintenance Worker, and Jarett Walter Lopez, District 6 Equipment Operator, for heroic service rendered while assisting a group of children to escape their damaged school bus after it collided with a fuel truck on State Route 41 in Fresno on May 13, 2014.
- Jerry Prado, District 7 Maintenance Area Superintendent, for intervening in a suicide attempt and providing physical and emotional support to a community member in crisis on March 13, 2024.
Pictured from left to right: CalSTA Undersecretary James Hacker, Isai Camino, John Bedolla, Jeronimo Prado, Vernon Ladd, Jarett Walter Lopez, Caltrans Deputy Director of Maintenance and Operations Janice Benton
The annual State Employee Medal of Valor award was first presented by Governor Edmund G. Brown Sr. in 1959.
In the 66 years these awards have been given, more than 800 state employees—including 130 from Caltrans—have earned medals of valor for their courage and selflessness in the face of danger.