SACRAMENTO — Five heroic Caltrans employees were presented with the Governor’s State Employee Medal of Valor Award in May.

Caltrans employees Theodore “Tad” Sampson, Shawn Morgan, Steven Rhine, Matthew McCarter and Jason Heinz went above and beyond the call of duty to save others’ lives.

Sampson earned his Silver Medal of Valor on Feb. 13, 2017, when he and three construction contractors joined forces to free an excavator operator who was trapped in a moving mass of debris on Interstate 80 near Baxter.

Morgan, Rhine, McCarter and Heinz received Silver Medals of Honor for their roles in rescuing victims of a vehicle that landed upside down in the freezing American River on Dec. 28, 2016.

The State Employee Medal of Valor award is the highest honor California bestows on its public servants. Governor Edmund G. Brown Sr. presented the first awards in 1959.

Since then, more than 600 state employees have earned that honor for their courage and selflessness in the face of danger.