Postal worker dies after spending hours in mail truck on 95-degree day
By Gilbert Baez
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FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (WRAL) — Wednesday “Wendy” Johnson was 51 years old when she died at Cape Fear Valley Hospital in June.
Family members said her death was heat-related and she began to feel weary on a hot day while working her job with the U.S. Postal Service. Johnson, who lived in Sanford, worked for the service for more than 20 years.
Weeks later, her children are still grieving and absorbing the shock from their sudden loss on June 6.
“When I would think of my mom, I would think of my own community because I didn’t need nobody else but her,” said daughter Sa’ni Johnson.
Her son, Deandre Johnson, said Wendy was riding in the back of a postal truck on a 95-degree day. Wendy worked as a supervisor and would sometimes help with deliveries. On this day, she began to have complications.
Postal workers said she was eventually found unconscious in the bathroom of a Fayetteville post office on Raeford Road. She was a supervisor at the post office on Southern Avenue.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the death as heat-related.
The vehicles used by the office do not have air conditioning. One postal worker who didn’t want to be on camera said they call the postal trucks “easy bake ovens.”
Johnson’s son said his mother would text family members about the heat inside the trucks.
“She texted my aunt and said ‘yeah, I’m in the back of this truck and I’m hot,'” Deandre Johnson said. “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.”
Wendy, as she was known to friends, was said to come from a big, loving family. She was their rock and lived to the fullest, even enjoying skydiving.
“As soon as she got back from getting off the truck, she went to the bathroom,” Sa’ni Johnson said. “And then when somebody came to the bathroom, they just found her 15 minutes later like … unresponsive.”
We’ve reached out to the postmaster in Charlotte to get information about the circumstances surrounding Johnson’s death, but have not gotten a response. We’re also awaiting the medical examiner’s report. For now, the family is cherishing Wendy for how she lived.
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