November 20 2016
GRANBY, N.Y. (AP) — A U.S. Postal Service worker has been killed in an accident in upstate New York.
The Oswego County Sheriff’s Office says the postal worker was driving a delivery truck on Ridge Road in Granby just after 11:30 a.m. Sunday when the truck hit wet roads and struck a tree.
The Post-Standard of Syracuse (http://bit.ly/2gbSkbz) reports the postal worker was ejected from the vehicle and crushed by the overturned truck.
Sheriff’s office identifies postal worker killed in Oswego County crash
Eric J. Stevens, 30, of Hamilton Street, Mexico, was driving a 2014 Ford postal service delivery truck in Granby when he lost control of his vehicle at approximately 11:40 a.m. Sunday, deputies said.
The truck went off the east side of Ridge Road, just north of Phillips Road, and hit a tree, throwing Stevens from the vehicle, deputies said. The truck rolled over and landed on Stevens, killing him.
Stevens was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the sheriff’s office.
The slippery, wet road conditions are believed to be the main reason why Stevens crashed, deputies said. He was also driving at unsafe speeds, deputies said.
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My mother has been a rural sub for the USPS in Iowa before my existence (I’m 33). This past Jan 1, 2015 she started a full time rural route. Oct 5, 2016 because of hard heavy rains the day before she lost control on the gravel road and rolled the car. She shattered the right side of her skull resulting in a craniotomy on the right side of her head, broke her neck, right clavicle, and 2 disks in her lower spine. She is currently at an acute rehab center and is walking and talking but suffers from TBI and short term memory is her downfall. Foe everyone saying wear your seatbelt-try being a rural carrier. They have to provide their own vehicle and they sit as far right as possible and use their left hand and left foot to drive. In Iowa that is the norm-I’ve never met a rural carrier with a seat belt on. They drive to the mailboxes but they also frequently get out of their cars. I think it’s unfair that city carriers are provided a right hand vehicle and rural are offered nothing it’s up to them to purchase a pricey special order right hand keep or purchase a converter kit. Why does the USPS not offer them at cost options. Her whole medical ordeal is going to cost them in the millions. Would have been a hell of a lot cheaper to provide her a $40,000 jeep. And by the way I want my previous mom back. I miss her and just want her to be the same.
Dear Kate:
Thank you, and your family for the service that your mom provided to
USPS, and the public. People like your mom are the back bone of USPS, and are the reason it still is a 200 year old organization that still works!. I
would be one of the last to make rude comments. I like your mom, was
a rural carrier. My Great Grand father was one. I wish you, and your
family the best, and hope your mom comes out it.
People the man died. I don’t think we need to be cruel and post nasty comment. He has a family and they have have lost a loved one. Really! Instead of spewing crap show a little compassion.
Thank you Deb, His family needs all the support they can get at this time!.
I never feel bad for people who die due to their own ignorance; be it from no seatbelt or drunk driver
It’s not his own ignorance. If you’ve never been a rural carrier then do not respond. It’s impossible to wear a seatbelt if you don’t have a right hand vehicle. And the USPS doesn’t even try to help out rural carriers financially for R-hand vehicles nor do they provide vehicles like they do for city carriers. It’s one thing to get behind the wheel and choose no seatbelt but it’s totally different if they are a rural mail carrier. The mail box is on the right and in any American vehicle the steering wheel is on the left. Ignorance is not putting yourself in a rural carriers shoes and the same goes for the USPS
don’t worry the great rural postal union is working on it……..just give the postal union thugs another 50 years. they tired themselves getting a 1% raise lol. RIP on the driver.
All state laws require the use of seatbelts. Postal regulations require the use of seatbelts. Common sense requires the use of seatbelts. If none of those reasons help you comply, how about this. The Postal Service pays you to use seatbelts. As with the other posters, I’m sorry for the surviving family members. However, the simple fact is the driver was responsible for this being a fatal accident by not using the seatbelts.
This is very tragic, but the article seems to indicate it was an LLV, although the carrier could have been city or rural. I see drivers all the time going through the middle of town on the busiest streets, through major intersections and leaving their doors wide open, seat belts unfastened or no shoulder harness, not using turn signals and basically just asking for the same thing.
It’s one thing to leave the door open in a quiet residential neighborhood doing curbside – it’s almost impossible to stuff boxes with the door closed – but when on busy streets, not using the seatbelt and shoulder strap is foolish. Look at how thin that door is – it’s the only thing between you and a drunk driver’s or texting moron’s radiator. Yes, the LLV’s are deathtraps, but the belts are the only things that help in a vehicle that’s too dangerous for demolition derbies.
As a branch president who saw carriers doing stupid stuff, and it was almost always the same bunch who refused to listen, I told them if they got crunched and were driving with doors open, no belts, etc., don’t come crying to the union. I don’t care how hot the trucks get in the summer – better to be hot than dead. This person was not wearing a belt or they wouldn’t have been ejected, most likely. And those damn LLV’s are harder to handle than damn near any vehicle on the road. Don’t be careless and stupid – this is not how you want to end your career.
I am very sorry for this workers family. The story made me wonder if the
worker was one of the new workers hired to work week ends. The story said it happened on a Sunday.
This is why you wear a seat belt. My deepest sympathies to the family of this carrier.