- January 9, 2019
- Posted by: Sage Shield Safety Consultants
- Category: Overseas Occupational Health And Safety News
6 months after a mail carrier died in her truck on a searing day in the San Fernando Valley, Rep. Tony Cárdenas stated he plans to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that if successful would guarantee that all U.S. Postal Service shipment vehicles have air-conditioning.
Veteran carrier Peggy Frank, 63, was found dead in her non-air-conditioned mail truck in Forest Hills on July 6, a day that temperatures skyrocketed to 117 degrees. Los Angeles County coroner’s officials have stated that Frank, a North Hills local, passed away of hyperthermia, an unusually high body temperature triggered by a failure of the body to deal with heat originating from the environment.
“For any automobile that is owned by the federal government not to have this easy innovation … is just unconscionable,” Cárdenas, D-Panorama City, informed the Southern California News Group on Friday.
The costs would ensure that each vehicle has air-conditioning and heating units that are “modern, safe and effective” to secure workers, the congressman said.
Since 2003, all motor automobiles purchased by the Postal Service have actually been geared up with a/c, a U.S. Postal spokeswoman has actually stated.
Overall, 63,000-plus Postal Service cars have cooling. The fleet had more than 230,000 lorries since fall 2017. All postal automobiles apparently have heating.
The Postal Service has yet to determine whether its next-generation vehicles will have air conditioning, according to a Nov. 30 reply from Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan to Cárdenas. The congressman had led a letter in October urging the Postal Service to “highly think about” having climate-control units in all of its mail trucks due to Frank’s death. More than 30 Congress members signed that letter.
A decision on what the next-generation vehicles will be geared up with is anticipated later this year.
Brennan stated, in her letter, that the firm will continue to work closely with union officials “to guarantee that the lorries meet the needs of our staff members.”
Brian Renfroe, executive vice president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said Friday that ensuring that letter providers are safe while serving the public is “incredibly essential to us. …
“We are continuing to deal with OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and the Postal Service to execute heat-safety procedures to much better protect the country’s letter carriers,” he said in a statement.
Federal workplace safety detectives launched a probe quickly after Frank’s death, the outcomes of which had yet to be launched since Friday.
While her cause of death was listed as hyperthermia, other substantial conditions Frank had were weight problems and heart illness, which typically affect somebody’s ability to control their body temperature level, according to coroner’s officials.
Cárdenas’ objective, he stated, is to make certain the Postal Service doesn’t go “back to the place” where other households should memorialize a public servant over this issue.
“(Frank) left behind (2) kids and five grandbabies,” Cárdenas stated. “It breaks my heart that she won’t have the ability to be with her grandbabies which her grandbabies will not be able to be with her. … This should not take place to anyone else.”
Frank’s sister, Lynn Calkins, stated she was grateful for the congressman’s efforts.
“That makes me extremely happy, and it (would) make Peggy really pleased, too,” Calkins said, her voice splitting with emotion.
