In memoriam: Tammy Berry, RCA, Chatsworth, GA

It is almost impossible to sit in middle of seat and deliver mail with seat belt on.Does mismanagement really not know this.

I sit in the middle unbuckled. I am not Superman with an extendable 6 foot arm. Get me a RHD vehicle that won’t catch fire and I’ll buckle up.

Sending prayers to her family

Sending prayers to her children and family

I sit in the middle. No seat belt. Impossible to wear. I tried an extender and sure you can clip it, but it tightens and prohibits all the leaning and stretching one needs to be able to do. I hate not having on a belt. 55mph roads with curves, people flying, passing me with oncoming traffic. I fear for my life everyday.

As a USPS RCA/Rural Carrier for 14+ years I send my sincere, genuine condolences and prayers to Tammy’s family. I bet you loved performing your job duties and I bet you loved your customers as much as I bet they loved you. At a time where the post office is seriously understaffed and each employee seriously overburdened, I wonder how many 7day weeks you have worked with no breaks? I wonder, how many 12 hour days were you out there delivering in the pitch black rural areas with no street lights? I wonder, how many times you were denied help and had to stuff mail and post into your car til you could only see out the front windshield…all while management tells you to go go go and hurry up to be back before the last truck. Go go go…but slow down and be “safe”. How many times have they knowingly sent you out the door in that very same vehicle where it is pretty much impossible to deliver with a seatbelt on? The letter asks “what does it take to get everyone to wear a seatbelt?” – unless Tammy was in an LLV or a right hand drive vehicle…the question is just one more contradiction to add to the list of contradictions in the organization. I wonder what the author of the letter wore for a seat belt when she was an RCA? Tammy, you sacrificed your life on Christmas Eve for a thankless agency who uses insincere condolences to mask their offensively gross, hypocritical PSA…all while, in their typical manner, pointing their finger, passing the buck and throwing you under the bus in order to deflect accountability. It could have been any of us out there. Prayers to your customers, coworkers and family.

Anyone who has been a Rural Carrier using their own vehicle knows that wearing a seatbelt, while delivering, is absolutely impossible. Perhaps the USPS would like to provide LLVs to ALL carriers (yeah, right) instead of making this dedicated young woman the scapegoat. Blessings to her family.

If she was in a postal vehicle, whose 2 say that her seat belt was not defective? That perhaps she WAS wearing her seatbelt, and while the vehicle went out of control that the seatbelt came loose causing the fatality?? I don’t know if she was in her own vehicle or not. What I do know is that the postal vehicles are poorly maintained on top of the fact that they are extremely old and falling apart. That being said, the USPS must stop assuming that the cause of these accidents are the drivers’ fault.

My heart aches for this young woman’s children and future grandchildren and other family. Tammy I know you were loved by many and left too soon . My family’s prayers are with your family at this heart wrenching time . God is with you.

My condolences to the family. This is scary and sad.

Please don’t run routes work safe.I see many carriers working to fast and running.I don’t know what happened here
.Rest in peace.

I am so sorry for this lady and her family’s great loss. I have delivered mail for 27 years with 19 of those years sitting in the middle. We are more overburden now that any other time I remember. Not wearing a seatbelt is impossible to avoid when sitting in the middle. Unfortunately this time of year we are all working long hours and in our office the RCAs we’re working 7 days a week. I am sure she was an awesome carrier and did her job 150%. My heart goes out to her family who lost a huge part of their heart Christmas Eve.

If you sit in the middle the rule states that you do not have to wear seatbelts If you have a right hand drive or an altered vehicle making
It a right hand drive, then you must wear your seatbelt. I did not see in the article where it was A right hand drive vehicles or not.

That’s a real professional letter to write “NOT” in all caps about a seatbelt. A life was lost in a tragic accident. The post office has no empathy whatsoever.

Retired 33 year postal employee. My heart goes out to her family. The letter is an heartless insult to all rural carriers.

Remember the Postal family in your prayers, as a retired Postal Supervisor losing a member of your team is hard if it was by accident or natural causes

I loved Tammy. She was a kind person.
I will miss her daily visits for sure