DEC Lineworker Makes a Brave Rescue

In the early-morning hours of Dec. 22, Delaware Electric Cooperative (DEC) Hot Bucket Crew Chief Ben Salisbury was responding to a power outage when he came  across an overturned vehicle outside of Greenwood. Immediately, Salisbury pulled over and called DEC dispatchers asking them to call 911. Salisbury then approached the car, where he found a young woman – upset but conscious – trapped in the driver’s seat. With some effort and the young woman’s help, Salisbury was able to free her from the car and escorted her to the safety of his bucket truck. Within minutes of removing the woman from the vehicle, an oncoming van made impact with the overturned car at full speed, pushing it down the road, and sending the van off into the neighboring field. Salisbury then called DEC dispatch again, reporting the second accident. Using safety cones stored on his truck, Salisbury quickly created a perimeter around the scene. Wearing his reflective vest, he flagged down oncoming traffic to prevent any further accidents from occurring. Fortunately, both the young woman and the driver of the van sustained only minor injuries. DEC’s manager of safety and security, Mark Anderson, who serves as the deputy chief of the Greenwood Volunteer Fire Company, says that without Salisbury’s quick action, the incident could have had a very different ending. “There’s no doubt in my mind – and I have been in the fire service for many, many years and responded to many vehicle crashes – if that driver had stayed inside that vehicle and been struck by the approaching van, there is a very good chance they would not have survived, or would have been in serious condition,” Anderson says. “In my eyes, Ben Salisbury is a hero.” Salisbury credits his quick response to the various safety trainings he has received from DEC over the course of his career. “The training we get here is important. I saw it work,” Salisbury says. “You’re hearing it over and over at different times, and then when the time comes, you don’t even have to think about it, it just happens. Your brain remembers what you’ve learned.” Salisbury says the night of Dec. 22 is one he’ll never forget — he’s just grateful he could use his DEC training to make a difference. “It makes me feel good that she was able to go home and spend Christmas with her family. I rode by where it all happened the next day, and I thought, ‘That whole thing could have ended with a marker and flowers.’ You start really thinking about how fast things change,” Salisbury says. “Between me and her, we’ll never forget it.”