Deputies save woman’s life after motorcycle accident in San Jose

Two weeks after completing first aid training, two Santa Clara County correctional deputies put their skills to use by rescuing a woman severely injured in a motorcycle accident.

On a late February afternoon, Deputies Walter Valle and Darwin Cano were on a Sheriff’s Transportation Division bus heading to a County fuel station when they spotted a woman lying in the street near Junction Avenue and Brennan Street in San Jose. She was riding her motorcycle and claimed she was cut off by a car and thrown from her bike.

The deputies immediately stopped the bus and noticed the woman’s lower left leg was severely injured and she was bleeding heavily. Without hesitation, Deputy Valle applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

Both deputies remained calm, taking steps to prevent the woman from hyperventilating or losing consciousness.

“I was so blessed that my partner and I were at the right place and at the right time to help Miss Owen,” Deputy Valle said. “I’m also thankful that the Sheriff’s Office provides training that we can utilize when needed.”

All deputies in the Transportation Division had just completed a CPR and first aid refresher course two weeks earlier, preparing them for emergency situations beyond their usual duties.

“We are very proud of the heroic efforts that Deputy Valle and Deputy Cano showed,” said Sergeant Mario Perez. “They relied on their instincts, training, and preparedness to come to the service of someone else."

Deputy Valle held Owen’s hand as the San Jose Fire Department arrived. The deputies assisted the medical team in getting her onto a gurney and to the hospital, where doctors were able to save her leg. She is expected to make a full recovery.

But the most surprising part came when Owen’s son, an incarcerated man, submitted a heartfelt message to jail staff.

“I would like to thank both officers for saving my mother’s life,” he wrote. “I just want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. My mother is the world to me, and I would be lost if she passed."

A few days later, Deputies Valle and Cano, along with Sergeant Perez, visited Owen in the hospital. She tearfully thanked them, calling them “her angels for life.”

“It was a very wholesome moment with her when we visited her in the hospital,” Deputy Cano said. “I’m grateful for the training the Sheriff’s Office provides us with because without it, we wouldn’t have known how to help Miss Owen.”