SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, CA — Peggy Frank of North Hills was a loving person and a public servant just two years away from retirement. Last July, she was running her route in the San Fernando Valley during a 117-degree day, when she passed away from heat exhaustion. The Postal Service truck she was driving did not have air conditioning.
After I learned that Peggy lost her life working, I said I would do whatever I could to make sure this tragedy never happens again. And that is why I am introducing the Peggy Frank Memorial Act. This bill will require that every postal service truck has air-conditioning and proper equipment so that postal workers can be safe during extreme weather.
Somehow, in America today more than 100,000 Postal Service trucks do not have AC. Here we are in 2019 and we don’t provide basic technology to protect the safety of American service workers who are out delivering our mail through all types of extreme weather. We must implement modern systems NOW.
We owe it to Peggy, her family, and all postal workers and their loved ones to make certain this never happens again.