DALLAS, Texas — Almost six months to the day after 66-year-old USPS letter carrier Eugene Gates collapsed and died during his route, a Dallas lawmaker has requested an oversight hearing with the agency regarding its efforts to combat heat-related illness and injury.
Gates was an employee of the postal service for 36 years and was in good health. He died June 20 during his letter-carrier route in Dallas when it was 98 degrees, and the heat index was 115 degrees.
An autopsy later revealed that he died from a combination of extreme heat and heart disease.
Ever since, his widow, Carla Gates, has been pushing for better working conditions.
"It was just traumatizing and so overwhelming," Gates said Tuesday. "I was just ecstatic and happy to hear that better awareness is about to take place."
The request for an oversight hearing was made by Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas) and other lawmakers to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
"The Postal Service provided a response to the Committee, but we remain concerned with its plans to protect the health and safety of employees," their letter read.
It also included a message sent to Oak Lawn Post Office employees after Gates' death that said, "BEAT THE HEAT!!! NO STATIONARY EVENTS; KEEP IT MOVING!"
A stationary event is when an employee's scanner is being tracked as idle and unproductive--a mark of inefficiency. Gates was sent a disciplinary letter for a stationary event a month before he died--his first infraction, per his widow.
Since his death, Gates tells WFAA that no upper management from the USPS has reached out to her or offered their condolences.
"It made me feel like my husband was just a number," Gates said. "You put in 36 years--and then it's goodbye. That's how I felt. "
The letter also mentioned several USPS employees from more than ten states alleging that annual heat-related stress training was often falsified or incomplete.
Gates said her husband was in great shape and took care of himself but didn't survive one of the hottest days of the year.
"Let these employees be properly trained to be prepared for the extreme heat and the change of our weather," Gates said.
If anything--Gates would like to see someone not have to go through what her family has.
She's in the process of receiving survivor benefits following her husband's death--and wishes the process were more user-friendly.
The Postal Service did tell Crockett that it would send new, air-conditioned trucks to Texas to replace old ones that didn't have any after Gates' death but didn't provide a timeline or where they would be heading.