With a job that involves traveling to all parts of the Nashville area, Nashville Electric Service (NES) workers often encounter unexpected, sometimes dangerous, incidents. Rarely, though, do three of these incidents happen in one week. But last week, the unexpected happened.
It began on Thursday, March 11, when C&M Padmount employees Cory Staton and Ryan Parker were driving to their next job on Bell Road toward the Hickory Hollow area when they heard gunshots. As they drove along, they came across the scene of a drive-by shooting.
Staton and Parker pulled over and utilized the CPR training they received in their NES classes. The victim suffered from three gunshot wounds, so the employees applied pressure and a tourniquet until EMS arrived and took over.
“I’ve told people that we just did what we felt we should do. Cory and I both have children,” says Parker, “If by chance our kids were to be involved in some type of accident, I know that both of us would want someone to help if we couldn’t be there.”
The following day, Staton was riding along I-40 with Sadaria Wallace, another C&M Padmount employee, when they came upon an accident at McCrory Lane. A car traveling westbound hit the center wires, flipped multiple times, and ended up in eastbound traffic.
Wallace stayed with the NES truck while Staton helped remove a family from inside the vehicle. While the family was shaken, they suffered only minor injuries.
“I had no idea what I would see in the overturned vehicle,” says Staton, who admits he was more nervous in this situation than he was with the shooting victim. “I was relieved to see that they all only seemed to have minor injuries. It could have been much worse.”
Finally, over the weekend, a breaker tripped near the Old Hickory Dam, so NES Operator Taylor McGill was dispatched to check on it.
McGill came upon the scene of a police investigation of some sort of shootout. One of the cars involved in the incident had crashed into an NES pole, causing significant damage. Fortunately, no customers were affected by the incident, and crews have since repaired the damage.
At NES, you never know what you’ll find in a day’s work, but we’re relieved that our employees remained safe while offering a helping hand.
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