{"id":468667,"date":"2026-09-19T03:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T03:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468667\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T03:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T03:56:10","slug":"retired-officer-honored-with-medal-after-deadly-highway-99-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468667\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired officer honored with medal after deadly Highway 99 crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired officer honored with medal for rescue efforts in deadly Highway 99 DUI crash<\/p>\n

Retired correctional officer Jeffery Bargstadt was awarded a Gold Medal of Honor at the Correction Department’s 40th Medal of Valor ceremony for his efforts to save a man\u2019s life after a tragic crash on Highway 99.<\/p>\n

\"Monique<\/a>GALT, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\n

A retired correctional officer is being honored for his efforts to save a man involved in a deadly crash along Highway 99.<\/p>\n

Jeffery Bargstadt received a Gold Medal of Honor during the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s 40th Medal of Valor ceremony in Galt.<\/p>\n

The award comes nine months after a day Bargstadt said he will never forget.<\/p>\n

Last November, Bargstadt and his wife, Paula, were heading to work along Highway 99 when they spotted Inderjit Ahluwalia’s wrecked car near Arch Road.<\/p>\n

Bargstadt stopped and tried to pull Ahluwalia from his vehicle.<\/p>\n

Before he could get Ahluwalia out, a drunk driver crashed into Ahluwalia’s car while traveling 117 mph.<\/p>\n

Ahluwalia did not survive.<\/p>\n

“I would do it again tomorrow or on my way home from this Medal of Valor ceremony. It’s just something I think everybody should do,” Bargstadt said.<\/p>\n

Bargstadt said the experience has stayed with him, but having his wife by his side has helped him cope with what happened.<\/p>\n

“I never had to deal with survivors’ guilt. It’s extremely tough to deal with, and having my wife there that was also a part of the accident, like I said, is a huge help to get through the days,” he said.<\/p>\n

In the months since the crash, Bargstadt has also formed a bond with Ahluwalia’s family, including his daughter, Charanjit.<\/p>\n

“We text weekly with them, we talk at least once a month with them. It’s great to be so close to such a family during such a tragedy,” Bargstadt said.<\/p>\n

Ahluwalia’s family watched from the audience as Bargstadt received his Gold Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n

Bargstadt said Ahluwalia’s wife told him, “God may have taken my husband, but he brought me a new family.”<\/p>\n

“So, that’s very touching to my wife and I,” Bargstadt said.<\/p>\n

While Bargstadt said he is honored to receive the medal, he hopes people remember a bigger message from what happened: Don’t drink and drive.<\/p>\n

“To make such a choice to drink and drive, I just don’t understand when there’s so many available options – taxi services, Uber, Lyft or even [calling] a friend,” Bargstadt said. “Or even if I’m at a bar and you’ve been drinking too much. Ask me and I’ll take you home.”<\/p>\n

Ahluwalia’s family did not want to appear on camera. They told KCRA 3 they were honored to see Bargstadt receive the medal.<\/p>\n

The family said Bargstadt’s actions at the scene of the crash helped them get justice for their loved one.<\/p>\n

See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired officer honored with medal for rescue efforts in deadly Highway 99 DUI crash Retired correctional officer Jeffery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[283,26186,17890,350,184538,180524,1431,21036,19609,1825,14552,184539,66728,3906,63194,184540,121,357,123,122,184541,4609],"class_list":["post-468667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-car","tag-cdcr","tag-corrections","tag-crash","tag-day-bargstadt","tag-deadly-highway","tag-family","tag-galt","tag-gold-medal","tag-highway-99","tag-honor","tag-inderjit-ahluwalia","tag-medal","tag-month","tag-rescue-effort","tag-retired-officer","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-county","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-valor-ceremony","tag-wife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}