Good Samaritans often don’t seek the limelight for their good deeds, but Georgia EMC is recognizing co-op employees for giving a helping hand when it counted most.
During its annual meeting in Savannah last month, the Tucker-based statewide association honored 20 employees from nine co-ops across Georgia with the Lifesaving Award for swift actions to protect others from dangerous or life-threatening situations.
“If it convinces one person to stop, it’s worth the recognition,” said Carrollton EMC’s Matt Young, one of the honorees.
The manager of safety, training and loss control was driving home from the Carrollton-based co-op in late 2024 when he noticed vehicles swerving to avoid something in the four-lane highway. A Home Depot was nearby, and Young thought the obstacle was a stray piece of lumber.
But as he got closer, Young was shocked to discover a male pedestrian lying motionless on the highway. Navigating through rush-hour traffic, Young turned around, drove back to the scene, saw the man had a bleeding head injury, and, thinking he had been struck by a car, administered first aid.
Young and others who by then had stopped to help—including his wife, Lindsey, also on her way home from work—called 911 and monitored traffic. One of the helpers, an employee from a nearby fast-food restaurant, recognized the man as a homeless customer, and another, an off-duty paramedic, determined he had suffered a drug overdose. Police arrived and administered Narcan to the man before taking him to a local hospital, and he later recovered.
Young is still shaken by the incident, troubled that no one had stopped to help the man until he stepped in.
“I was relieved to see that he had recovered, but I also struggled with knowing that many people drove around him,” Young said. “Maybe someone else didn’t want to be the first, I don’t know.”
Among the other honorees at the Georgia EMC annual meeting was a group of Jackson EMC lineworkers—marking the second time they were recognized for helping free an elderly couple from an overturned vehicle near the Jefferson-based co-op. Earlier this year, the Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services honored Kyler Hosch, Andrew Quint, Paul Everett, Jacob Miller and Micheal Simmons for their actions.
“Anyone here who was in our situation would have done the same thing,” said Hosch, a journeyman lineman.
On April 16, Hosch and his colleagues were installing a three-phase transformer on a busy thoroughfare when they heard a car crash and ran toward the sound.
“The lady was alert and trapped in her seatbelt, and her husband was unconscious; his leg was pinned under the dashboard,” said Andrew Quint, a lineman apprentice at the Jackson-based co-op. “The driver who hit them was physically OK but shaken up.”
The crew called 911, freed both passengers by cutting off their seatbelts, taking care to support their heads and necks to avoid spinal injuries, and monitored them until emergency responders arrived and took them to a nearby hospital.
The crew’s response embodies co-op values, said Stephen Poole, the co-op’s director of safety and training. “Their quick thinking, courage and commitment to the safety and wellbeing of our community, makes us incredibly proud. They represent the very best of what it means to serve.”
Victoria A. Rocha is a staff writer for NRECA.