Michael E. Johnson

Michael E. Johnson helped rescue Pete Dunegan from drowning, Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, September 17, 2024. Dunegan, 43, was working at a municipal water authority site, replacing a valve inside an underground vault, when a pressurized water line caused an interior pipe to dislodge from the vault’s wall. This caused water to rush inside, pushing the steel pipe and attached valves into Dunegan’s leg, almost completely severing it. Inside the vault, Johnson, 54, distribution system service worker, was knocked off his feet due to the speed of the water. Quickly regaining composure, Johnson saw that Dunegan, semiconscious, was severely injured, bleeding and unable to move. Johnson ascended the vault’s interior ladder and shouted to workers above that Dunegan was hurt and to call 911. Although some workers turned off the flow of water at a valve about 1,200 feet away, water already in that pipe continued to fill the underground vault, which was 12 feet square and 6 feet deep. Another co-worker descended the ladder and reached Dunegan as the murky water level rose inside the vault. Johnson then shouted to other workers outside the vault for a lifting strap, which they threw to him. With the water at chest height, Johnson and the co-worker were able to float Dunegan to the ladder. They shouted to a crane operator on-site to lower the crane, and a worker at ground level attached a loop of the lifting strap, which had been wrapped around Dunegan’s chest and under his arms, to the crane hook. Dunegan was lifted out of the vault, then lowered to the ground. Johnson and his co-worker exited to safety as the vault overflowed with water. The co-worker used his belt as a tourniquet on Dunegan’s injured leg. Dunegan was taken to a trauma center, where he underwent surgery to reattach his leg. Johnson tore a rotator cuff and suffered bruising to his back, and recovered.

2025-0000069-10544