Two colleagues from Southern Electric Power Distribution are to be recognised for their chivalry after helping a customer whose car window had been shattered by a loose strap from a lorry.
Tree cutters James Carter and Nathan Wilford, who work out of Aldershot and Petersfield depots, had been driving home after work when they saw a woman with a small child by the roadside crying and visibly distraught.
James explained what happened: “We stopped to see if we could help her. She was in no fit state to drive. She was crying uncontrollably and told us that she was too scared to drive. She had no rescue cover and her phone had run out of battery. I lent her my phone and she phoned her husband but she couldn’t get hold of him.”
After clearing up the broken glass, making the shattered window safe, and offering reassurance to the woman, James and Nathan escorted her in convoy – one in front of her, the other following behind. James then escorted her all the way to her village where she was eventually met by her husband.
The incident came to light when Customer Service received an email from the woman. In it she said: “I was very shaken. Holding my three-year-old son on the roadside not knowing which way to turn. Car after car passed me by. James and Nathan were knights in shining armour. The only ones who stopped to help. Please, please shake their hand again and pass on our deepest gratitude. These two men are a great credit to SSE.”
Stuart Hogarth, director of distribution at SSEPD, said: “James and Nathan went the extra mile, and these are the very words used by the lady they helped. It makes immensely proud to have colleagues like these who take the welfare of our customers so seriously – whether in or out of working hours.”
James and Nathan are to receive a monetary gift in recognition of their chivalry.