Big Brown’s Trevor Lousberg and his friend Eamond McAuley can tell you exactly where they were on Saturday, March 24 at 6:30 p.m. – the day they saved a life.
After driving up to a car-train collision, Trevor and Eamond, a Mount Pleasant High School math teacher, took quick action to save the life of Lindsey Lehman, a former high school classmate and the stepdaughter of another Luminant employee.
“I’m proud to be a part of an organization where people help people and don’t let others get in a bind without coming to their aid,” said Ric Federwisch, senior vice president of fossil generation. “Both Trevor and Eamond really stepped up when it mattered most by assessing the situation and using their safety knowledge to save Lindsey’s life.”
On the day of the accident, Lindsey, stepdaughter of Monticello’s Allen Atkinson, was headed to a wedding shower when a freight train clipped the rear end of her Chevrolet Trailblazer and spun her 180 degrees along the tracks.
“Eamond and I were also on our way to the shower when we came upon a train that was blocking the road. I noticed some movement on the other side of the train and heard a loud engine revving,” recounts Trevor. “Something about it didn’t seem right, so we jumped out of the car and ran across the train tracks where we found a car with a redlining smoking engine. We didn’t even speak; we just knew what we needed to do – we got her out of the car just before it burst into flames.”
It wasn’t simply about being in the right place at the right time, though. Both Trevor and Eamond utilized critical CPR and safety training techniques to make sure they didn’t cause additional injuries while extracting Lindsey from the vehicle.
“I remember saying, ‘we’ve got to support her head,’ because we didn’t know if she had experienced any head trauma or spinal injuries. I worked as a lifeguard for several summers and that’s what really stuck out in my mind from my safety training,” said Eamond. “We used a lot of the information we’ve learned to immediately check breathing and make sure that her airways were not obstructed.”
And probably no one is more thankful than Lindsey for their safety training and heroic actions. “I basically owe them everything because without the right people there and without their knowledge, the situation may not have turned out like it did,” said Lindsey. “I owe a lot to them because they didn’t have to take that risk. It doesn’t shock me at all that Trevor and Eamond were the guys to step up and help – that’s the type of people they are, just good people.”
To recognize their quick actions during an emergency event, Trevor and Eamond are recipients of the Luminant Lifesaving award. The award program began in 1989 and Eamond is the first non-Luminant employee recipient.
“It’s an honor to receive this award and I appreciate Luminant for including me,” said Eamond.