Certified EMT Vanessa Carrillo, 19, of La Cienega. (Courtesy photo)
The following is a news brief that published in Thursday’s New Mexican:
Two city police officers were honored by the Santa Fe City Council on Wednesday for their response to a wrong-way fatal crash on Interstate 25 late last year.
They were named Employees of the Month for the city.
Officers Paul Joy and Mike McCluskey were among the first emergency personnel to arrive at the scene around 2 a.m. Dec. 14 after a drunken driver plowed head-on into an ambulance driven by Vanessa Carrillo, killing herself and injuring Carrillo.
The officers used their bare hands to remove the windshield from the ambulance to get to Carrillo, according to a letter their supervisor wrote the mayor.
Joy and McCluskey went to the hospital as Carrillo was being treated and waited outside her room in support, even though they were “covered in shards of glass from their uniforms to their boots,” wrote Lt. Kyle Zuments.
“It was exceptional that our officers really took the time to be there on a personal level,” said Councilor Patti Bushee, among members of the governing body who presented the pair with plaques on Wednesday night.
Carrillo, who is still using a wheelchair as a result of her injuries that night, also attended the meeting to thank the officers.
