Shown, left to right are Postal Service’s Mid-Island Processing & Distribution Manager Keith Fischer; Amityville Acting Postmaster Debbie Gordon; Amityville Letter Carrier Charles Vogel and Blaise Gemellaro, Postal Service’s Long Island District Safety Manager. Not pictured is Letter Carrier Roger Smith. Amityville Acting Postmaster Debbie Gordon recently honored Amityville Letter Carriers Charles Vogel and Roger Smith for earning the National Safety Council’s prestigious Million Mile Club award. The Million Mile Club recognizes professional drivers in the workplace who have traveled at least 30 years without a preventable motor vehicle accident.

“The standard of professional driving performance required to earn the Million Mile Club status demands the best driving skills,” said Acting Postmaster Gordon. “Charles and Roger have demonstrated a genuine commitment to safety and the safety of those around him as he delivered mail to the customers in the neighborhoods on his route. The average car driver would have to travel around the world forty times to equal a million miles. Our carriers do it regularly in distances averaging approximately 30 miles a day for more than 30 years. During an average lifetime, Americans will drive 413,000 miles and have 3.2 traffic accidents.”

The Acting Postmaster cautions that the statistics are very sobering. The National Safety Council reports more than 42,000 people lose their lives in motor vehicle crashes each year. Another two million suffer disabling injuries. Worse, there is a death caused by a motor vehicle crash every thirteen minutes and there is a disabling injury every ten seconds.

“We are really proud of Charles’ and Roger’s attention to safe driving practices and the day-to-day efforts of all our employees,” concluded the Amityville Acting Postmaster.