By Hazel Ford–
Keith Harris, a US Postal Service letter carrier in Citrus Heights has driven 1,000,000 accident-free miles — all without leaving the city limits. In a Dec. 27 news release USPS said he achieved this feat in 30 years of working for the postal service, and has also clocked in over 46 years of personal driving experience without so much as a fender-bender.
Harris says the key to decades without an accident is taking time for safe driving, no matter how rushed everyone else is. Despite facing traffic hazards every day, he makes sure to be courteous to other drivers, follow laws, and stay away from his phone or other distractions.
“Postal Service drivers are among the safest in the world,” said Sacramento District Manager Jeff Lelevich in Wednesday’s news release. “The remarkable achievement of Keith Harris demonstrates how Postal Service employees continue to deliver on the promise of delivering their best every day with care, courtesy and the concern for the safety of others.”
To honor Harris’s million-mile safety achievement, the National Safety Council presented him with a plaque at the Citrus Heights Post Office on Friday. The council awards drivers who accumulate 1,000,000 miles or 30 years of driving “without being involved in a preventable motor vehicle accident.” Harris was also granted automatic membership in the council’s “Million Mile Club.”
Last month, the postal service awarded another carrier in Sanger, Calif. for also driving 1,000,000 miles without an accident. According to the National Safety Council, it takes about 30 years of frequent driving to accumulate 1,000,000 miles.
