Two Marble Falls PEC journeyworkers rescue mother, daughter from crash
After a long day of work thanks to a hailstorm the previous night, sopping wet from working an outage in the elements, all George Lozano and Trey Salazar were thinking of was going home. Little did they know they would be rescuing a mom and daughter from a vehicle crash that would happen right in front of their eyes.
Lozano and Salazar, both journeyworkers with PEC, were driving through Marble Falls on April 9 when an SUV was hit, flipped, and landed on its side 10 feet in front of their vehicle.
“I looked up, and everything went in slow motion,” Salazar recalled.
Salazar told Lozano to call 911 as he jumped out of the vehicle. Lozano turned on the flashers to block traffic and Salazar looked inside the SUV’s broken sunroof along with another bystander. When they saw the five-year-old girl was OK, they both worked to get her out of the vehicle.
“I climbed into the car, held up the girl in the car seat so she didn’t fall into the glass, cut her seatbelt, and carried her out,” Salazar said.
Miraculously, neither the mom nor daughter suffered any major injuries. The mother endured only a small scratch on her leg.
The mother, Annie Minnix, a PEC member, was very grateful for Lozano, Salazar, and everyone else who helped them during the crash. She said she can remember everything from the surreal feeling of flipping in the air to her daughter screaming in the backseat and the men jumping into action.
“I didn’t even really look at myself, but I just told the two men, ‘I’m OK, just please get her out of the car,’” she said. “They did it so gracefully.”
Minnix said her daughter is still recovering mentally from the incident, but that she still speaks fondly of the journeyworkers who got her out.
“It’s lovely because she always says, ‘remember those nice men who helped me out of the car,’ and that means so much to me,” she said.
The Minnix family only recently moved to the area and have been pleasantly surprised by the compassion this community has shown her after the accident.
“The community has made us feel so lovely,” she said. “We just want to thank the community for rallying around us and making us feel so loved. A big thank you for taking care of us and making sure we were OK.”
Over the years, our employees have gone the extra mile on many occasions to help members in need. Whether it’s helping people out of a car crash, assisting someone who accidentally got locked out of a house, taking food to those in need, or mowing a lawn for someone who can’t, PEC’s employees have shown their compassion for our membership on countless occasions.
“While it does make us feel good when we’re out in the elements restoring power, when we get to do something for our communities, it makes you feel like you’re doing more than just a job,” Lozano said.
