North Texas UPS driver crashes after passing out from heat
NORTH TEXAS — A North Texas UPS driver is out of the hospital after passing out from the heat and the truck crashing.
On Friday, a driver filmed this cell phone video of a UPS truck careening into oncoming traffic, narrowly missing a red car and slamming into trees. According to the UPS driver's union, Teamsters Local 767, the driver was suffering from heat-related illness when he lost control.
"While he was driving he unfortunately succumbed to those heat-related injuries he did pass out behind the wheel," said David Reeves, the principal officer of Teamsters Local 767.
The union says the driver who is based in the Longview area was asked to help out on Friday, driving from the UPS facility in McKinney. He left around noon but after a few hours, he started vomiting and feeling ill from the heat.
"That's when he had to tell the supervisor that he could no longer complete his job for the day," said Reeves.
But the union says his manager told him to drive the truck back to the facility. They say that goes against UPS' own heat safety protocols and that the manager should've called 911.
"UPS has got to take responsibility for this and shut these drivers down they've got to be responsible for frankly for the safety of the driver along with the general public," said Reeves.
The driver was hospitalized but is now recovering at home.
We reached out to UPS for comment who told us they care deeply for the driver's well-being and will be working with authorities to investigate what happened.
They say they spend more than $400 million annually on safety training and have also:
- added more cooling equipment to facilities and vehicles
- provided employees with specialized cooling gear
- provide access to ice and water
But according to Teamsters Local 767, UPS promised that all new vehicles purchased this year within their jurisdiction would be air-conditioned but Reeves says as far as he knows none of them have A/Cs.
"This is unacceptable," said Reeves.
Just last summer, a Dallas United States Postal Service worker Eugene Gates Jr. died of a heat-related illness while delivering mail on a scorching hot June day.
"They have a multi-billion dollar industry, and they are not looking out for the welfare of their employees," said his widow.
Teamsters Local 767 is hoping to sit down with UPS to come up with solutions so no one else gets hurt on the job.
"I think UPS needs to stay focused on taking care of their people over their packages is exactly our message," said Reeves.