KTVT, TEAMSTERS LOCAL 767, FACEBOOK, UPS, NEYSA LAMBETH, CNN, Teamsters Local 767/Facebook
By Andrea Lucia
Click here for the latest information on this story.
NORTH TEXAS (KTVT) — The widow of a UPS driver who died last year is calling for safer conditions for workers as temperatures rise. Her comments follow the death of a UPS worker in Bell County on Thursday and an accident on Friday involving a second worker near McKinney. In both cases, there were questions about what role heat exhaustion may have played.
“I saw the video of the driver hitting trees and then, you know, they said it was from McKinney Center and my heart just stopped,” said Neysa Lambeth. “I cried all day yesterday. I couldn’t believe it was happening again.”
Her husband, Chris Begley, was a dedicated UPS driver for 28 years.
“He showed up for our very first date in his UPS uniform,” she said.
But the long working hours in trucks without air conditioning had their effects.
“Literally every day in the summer, he would come home and collapse into the chair for the night,” Lambeth said.
Twice, Lambeth said, she had to pick him up after he became ill at work due to the summer heat.
“He felt sick. He couldn’t go on. He felt dizzy,” Lambeth said.
The third time it was 39 degrees.
Lambeth was out of town caring for her father in his final days when she discovered that her husband had been left home alone after a collapse at work.
“He was disoriented. He didn’t know when he had come home. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious. He was angry at me for asking so many questions,” she said.
Days later he collapsed again and died.
UPS was fined $66,000 after an OSHA investigation found the company failed to provide Begley with access to medical care.
The company says it invests over $409 million annually in safety training, equips its employees with special cooling equipment, and equips its vehicles and facilities with additional equipment to protect people from the heat.
“They have to be responsible for the safety of the drivers…” said David Reeves, president of Teamsters Local 767.
The union has sharply criticized the company for not fully implementing some of its own protocols, saying the worker seen on video in his accident on Friday was ordered to drive back to the UPS center after reporting that he was sick and vomiting, rather than wait for help to be sent to him.
UPS says the incident is still under investigation.
“The feedback I’ve had from some of the riders is that nothing has changed,” Lambeth said. “That has to change. These guys are dying. And their families are having to go through what I went through last year and it’s horrific.”
UPS has confirmed that the employee who died Friday in Bell County near Temple was Luis Grimaldo.
“At this point in time, there is no evidence of heat stress,” it said about the death.
Please note: This content is subject to a strict local market embargo. If you live in the same market as the author of this article, you are not allowed to use it on any platform.
