From the National Association of Letter Carriers

If you need a reminder of the drive and dedication of a typical letter carrier, consider Joel Cabrera of Garden Grove, CA Branch 1100. Learning to walk again in a rehabilitation center after a car struck him as he stood behind his postal vehicle on his route last May, Cabrera has become the center’s unofficial mailman. In his postal uniform shirt, he takes the mail from the regular carrier at the front door and delivers it from room to room by wheelchair.

“It’s what I call mailman therapy,” Cabrera said. Delivering mail in the rehab center is helping him feel normal again, but it’s more than that. Much like his role on his route, Cabrera is handing out daily smiles and greetings to the elderly and disabled people in the rehab center who seem forgotten by the outside world, and repaying the rehab center and its residents for the care he’s receiving.“I wanted to give back to them, to make them feel like regular people, because they are regular people.” Cabrera is one of several carriers recovering from severe injuries after they were struck while standing behind postal vehicles.

At least 10 other carriers have suffered similar accidents since 1996, with a terrible toll in health and lives. Some eventually went back to work, but others lost limbs or were permanently disabled.

Atlantic City, NJ Branch 370 member Maureen De Prince lost her legs, eyesight and unborn child in an accident in 2006.

Four of the victims died, including Los Angeles Branch 24 member Anthony Dunn, who was struck in February of last year.

Columbus, OH Branch 78 member Doug Poole while he stood behind his vehicle. “It ended up tearing up my right leg really bad,” Poole said, and required a rod inserted into his left femur and a long, hard recovery. Poole has no memory of the accident, or the first two months of his hospital stay. But based on what others have told him,
he counts his blessings.

Managers in Seattle Branch 79 member Keith Wagner’s station didn’t hold the parking points talk in time to prevent his accident. In July 2012, just five months after Dunn’s death, a driver impaired by drugs and alcohol smashed into a car parked behind Wagner as he stood behind his vehicle on his route in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. The parked car hit Wagner, crushing his left leg in between the car and his vehicle.

The NALC article did not mention the most recent letter carrier: Lydia Ray, a seasoned postal worker, was getting mail out of the back of her truck when a driver slammed into a parked car, pinning her underneath.