A Texas mail carrier died in extreme heat. What his widow found raised questions about USPS safety.

When Eugene Gates Jr. left for work on a June morning in 2023, he already knew what kind of day it would be.

At 7:30 a.m., the veteran Dallas mail carrier sent a text to his wife Carla about the heat. It was already 87 degrees.

Hours later, Gates collapsed while delivering mail. The medical examiner found hyperthermia contributed to his death.

What happened to Gates is one of several tragedies involving postal workers in extreme Texas heat in recent years. But it was what Carla Gates said she discovered after his death that sent the CBS News Texas I-Team digging through federal audits, OSHA records, employee complaints and Postal Service vehicle data.

The records raised a larger question: Years after USPS launched a nationwide heat-safety program, are those protections reaching mail carriers in the field as intended?

A mail carrier who loved the job

Eugene Gates delivered mail for 36 years. For the final 15 years of his career, he worked the same Lakewood route, delivering letters and packages to about 400 homes per day. The neighborhood knew Gates, and Gates knew the neighborhood.

"Eugene was a man of integrity. He was a man that loved people. He was always smiling," Carla Gates said. "He loved the Postal Service. He loved the people, his customers."

After all those years on the job, Eugene Gates knew Texas heat and prepared for it every day.

That included filling up a cooler with at least eight bottles of water to start his day. That preparation became even more important when the ice machine at his postal station stopped working and was not repaired, Carla Gates said.

Eventually, her husband decided to solve the problem himself.

"I said: 'do you want me to just start buying bags of ice for you?' And he said: 'no I'm just going to purchase me an ice machine,'" she said.

Every morning, he stocked up before heading out on his route. Three years later, Carla Gates still keeps one of the reminders of that routine: the last bag of ice she ever made for him.

"I tried to, I really tried to get rid of it, I just can't right now," she said.

That morning still haunts Carla Gates. By midday, Eugene Gates had collapsed while delivering mail.

The medical examiner later found hyperthermia contributed to his death. When doctors delivered the news, Carla Gates said she was stunned.

"I was in shock, I, I, I'm sorry, I was in shock. I would have never thought that," she said.

Later, she learned one of Eugene's customers had invited him inside to cool off. She said he did not stop because he wanted to finish his route.

Then she discovered something she could not explain.

Training records raise questions

In 2022, USPS launched a nationwide Heat Illness Prevention Program designed to better protect carriers working in extreme temperatures.

Records Gates obtained showed that her husband had completed required heat safety training, but she said that never happened.

"He never had any training whatsoever. And, I guess they have some type of test. It was all falsified because the day that he supposedly had taken the training, it was one of his off days," Gates said.

Kimetra Lewis, the president of the Dallas branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers labor union, said concerns involving training records extended beyond Dallas.

"It turns out it was all across the country. The same thing was happening. They were saying that they had provided the carriers with this training, but it was found that was not true," Lewis said.

The I-Team also found a federal audit examining the Postal Service's adverse weather procedures. The USPS Office of Inspector General found that heat safety training was not always properly certified or presented in group settings.

In one example, a manager certified 39 carriers as having completed heat training, but records showed that 17 of those carriers were not working on the date of certification.

The audit also found USPS recorded 1,332 heat-related incidents nationwide between fiscal year 2022 and June 2024.

Records obtained by the I-Team show that there have been 355 reported incidents at facilities in Texas since the Heat Illness Prevention Program launched.

More deaths followed

The audit and USPS records the I-Team obtained were not the only findings that raised questions.

In 2025, Dallas letter carrier Jacob Taylor died after suffering a medical emergency while working during extreme heat.

Then, in the summer of 2026, Little Elm letter carrier Umeshkumar Thakkar died after collapsing while working during an Extreme Heat Warning.

Lewis said she believes working conditions remain a serious concern because the job has become hazardous, even life-threatening. She also said things have not improved. 

"They're not showing any compassion, and nothing has changed until they get a message loud and clear that they have to make some changes, they're not going to do it," Lewis said of the Postal Service.

The I-Team also reviewed OSHA records that revealed a pattern of heat-related complaints involving postal facilities across Texas.

Those complaints came from locations including Dallas, Waxahachie, Killeen, Houston, Humble, Nederland, Beaumont, Galveston, Flint, Fulshear, Angleton and San Antonio.

Among the complaints:

• A carrier in Killeen was hospitalized with a heat-related illness over three days in 2023, and the employer did not report the hospitalization to OSHA. An OSHA citation later confirmed USPS failed to report the employee's hospitalization within the required 24-hour timeframe.
• In the summer of 2026, a letter carrier in Dallas reported that they did not have access to cool drinking water because of the limited capacity of ice machines at the Juanita Craft station.
• Multiple employees complained about the conditions in Waxahachie, including cold beverages not always being available and a fear of discipline when raising concerns about heat exposure.

Thousands of vehicles without air conditioning

Records obtained by the I-Team also revealed that more than half of the active delivery vehicles assigned in Texas still lack air conditioning.

The records showed:

• 18,153 active delivery vehicles statewide
• 10,337 without air conditioning
• 7,816 with air conditioning

At several North Texas locations, the percentages were even higher.

• At Cedar Hill, 30 of 33 assigned vehicles lacked air conditioning.
• At DeSoto, 32 of 36 lacked air conditioning.
• At Arlington's Oakwood Station, 39 of 44 lacked air conditioning.
• At Plano's Coit Station, 60 of 70 lacked air conditioning.

Patrick Pitts, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, said policy alone is not enough.

"The Postal Service has a heat illness prevention program, but a policy on paper is not the same thing as protection on a route," he said.

Last month, union delegates approved a resolution calling for stronger protections.

"Collectively they stood up and said we need to address this!" Pitts said. "Extreme heat is a part of the job, dying from it shouldn't be!"

USPS response

USPS declined to do an interview with the I-Team.

In a statement, U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Carol Hunt said:

"Postal Service carriers deliver the mail throughout the year during varying temperatures and climatic conditions. This includes during the summer months when the temperatures rise throughout the country. The safety of our employees is a top priority, and the Postal Service has implemented a national Heat Illness Prevention Program (HIPP) for all employees. In connection with the HIPP, the Postal Service provides mandatory heat-related and other safety training and instruction to all employees and assures they have the resources needed to do their jobs safely. 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. 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.

The HIPP is triggered during the period of April 1 through October 31 and at any other time when weather reports issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) for a particular work location indicate that the outdoor heat index temperatures are expected to exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the course of a workday or work shift. The Postal Service requires annual completion of a training course on heat stress by all employees in every facility."

Still fighting

Three years later, Carla Gates still has the uniform Eugene wore the day he died. She still carries stamps in her purse.

"My husband told me, he said, 'make sure baby you always purchase stamps because it helps for us to have jobs.'"

And she is still pushing for change.

"I want to see results. And the only way to see results is that we have to fight," she said.

"I want to fight on the battlefield until we win."

What the union wants

Union leaders say the solutions are straightforward:

• Earlier start times
• More breaks during extreme heat
• Reliable access to ice and water
• More air-conditioned vehicles

But Carla Gates still questions whether the protections designed to keep carriers safe are reaching the workers who need them most.