The California Highway Patrol said today that the two PG&E workers who drowned when their utility truck plummeted into a Plumas County lake are from Chico.
Ryan Patrick Miles, 29, and Aaron Joseph Weiss, 31, drowned in Rock Creek Reservoir, between Paradise and Lake Almanor, about 4:30 p.m. Thursday. Miles was the driver of the blue Ford-550 truck that sank in 25 feet of water.
Two other utility workers, passengers Mike Keith Diefenderfer, 48, of Paradise, and Loren Thomas Bird, 25, of Chico were able to swim to shore and survived.
CHP officer James Stowe said that Miles was driving westbound on Highway 70 approaching the Rock Creek dam after the crew had worked all day at Caribou, which is south of Lake Almanor. The four Pacific Gas & Electric workers were on their way home to the Chico-Paradise area.
Along Highway 70, the truck's right tires drifted off onto the dirt shoulder. Miles turned the steering wheel to bring the truck back onto the road, sending the vehicle out of control and across the road into the water.
The vehicle sank quickly, according to the CHP.
Bird and Diefenderfer escaped back up to Highway 70. The bodies of Miles and Weiss were recovered when the truck was pulled from the reservoir more than two hours later.
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