Carla Gates had a strong reaction seeing her late husband’s name in a letter signed by 77 members of Congress to the United States Postal Service Postmaster General.
“I had tears of joy,” Gates said.
The letter calls for the postmaster general to implement heat safety standards proposed by OSHA
Her husband, Eugene Gates, died while delivering mail in 2023.
“Eugene was working on June the 20th when the heat index was 119 degrees, and I received a phone call that he had passed out,” Gates said. “I just assumed, because of the heat, that he got overheated. But come to find out, Eugene passed from heat exhaustion on June the 20th of 2023.”
OSHA’s proposed changes include allowing mail carriers time to acclimate to heat and mandatory breaks.
