The family of a North Carolina postal service worker who died after working under intense heat is taking the United States Postal Service to task over their response to their loved one’s death.
Postal worker Wednesday “Wendy” Johnson died on June 6 at her job in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Family members reportedly say the 51-year-old was riding in the back of a USPS truck with no air conditioning on a scorching summer day to help with deliveries.
Postal service workers later found her unresponsive in a bathroom at a local post office before she died. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is currently investigating her death as heat-related.
Johnson was a supervisor at another Fayetteville office and worked for USPS for 20 years.
Her son, DeAndre Johnson, learned the news of her death as he was driving to Maryland. He told USA Today that his sister first called him after their mother passed out that day. A mere five minutes passed before he received a second call with news that his mother passed away.
Johnson said his mother would often text him and her sister on hot days when she was working. He often questioned why his mother, a supervisor, worked in the back of trucks.
“She texted my aunt and said ‘yeah, I’m in the back of this truck and I’m hot,'” Johnson told WRAL-TV. “Being in her situation, I don’t think she should have been in a truck in 95-degree weather and in the back of that truck it was like 102.”
The vehicles used by the office do not have air conditioning, WRAL reported. One postal worker even called the postal trucks “easy bake ovens.”
Family members believe Johnson died of a heat stroke. Authorities are still awaiting autopsy findings with the cause of death from the medical examiner.
“My mother died on the clock,” De’Andre Johnson told USA Today. “She worked for a government job and she died on government property.”
USPS sent Johnson’s family a name plaque and organized a memorial service to honor her. While De’Andre Johnson is grateful for the gestures, he believes the agency was “saving face.”
A USPS spokesperson sent a statement to USA TODAY following Johnson’s death rehashing the heat illness prevention programs and training the agency has instituted to address heat safety issues.
“Carriers are reminded to ensure they’re hydrated, wear appropriate clothing, including hats, get in the shade whenever possible, and to take sufficient amounts of water and ice with them out on their routes,” the statement read. “Carriers are further instructed to contact 9-1-1 in the event they begin experiencing any symptoms of heat exhaustion or heat stroke, and they are provided with information to help them identify the symptoms associated with these two forms of heat illness.”
Johnson’s children remembered their mother as a vibrant, loving soul who was the rock of their family.
“When I would think of my mom, I would think of my own community because I didn’t need nobody else but her,” Johnson’s daughter Sa’ni Johnson told WRAL-TV.
De’Andre Johnson said he hopes his mother’s death will generate awareness for sufficient workplace conditions at the postal service, including for mail carriers operating its trucks.
