South Carolina Son Follows in Father’s Safety Footsteps

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Dwain Fogle believes in taking an extra minute to make sure safety is first in his job as a rural mail carrier, a lesson he learned from his father who spent 41 years in the same profession.

As a rural carrier with the Norway, South Carolina Post Office, Dwain delivers mail to 451 homes across 92 miles. His penchant for keeping himself and others safe on the dangerous roads has earned him the National Safety Council’s Million Mile Award. The U.S. Postal Service safe driver award recognizes drivers with one million miles of driving, or 30 accumulated years driven, without a preventable incident.

Dwain started working with the Postal Service as a fresh-faced 20-year-old in 1980. The 52-year-old, who is now in his 32nd year with the postal service, said the award was “real nice,” particularly since his father, Bryan Fogle Sr., won the same award during his career with the postal service. The 84-year-old, who began working with the post office in 1958, was a rural mail carrier for the Neeses Post Office before retiring in April 1999.

“My dad was on ever since I was a little boy, and I was very fortunate to get on with the postal service. I knew he had won the award. I really didn’t think a whole lot about it, but I knew it was a big accomplishment. Then when I was getting close to winning it, I said, `I wonder whether I’m going to be jinxed and have a wreck the day before,”‘ Dwain said, laughing.

He attributes the teachings of his father to his success in keeping himself and others as safe as possible while on the road.

“I’ve been taught as a child to be courteous. I think being courteous to each other is the main thing when you’re on the road. In today’s times, that’s something we don’t hardly have anymore. I figured if I could go 30 years without an accident, that would be real nice,” Dwain said.

His father said he is pleased his son is following in his footsteps in putting job safety, along with common courtesy, first.

“Well, it says that he picked up a lot of the traits that I tried to encounter in my time in carrying the mail,” Bryan said. “You have to be gentle, and you have to be kind and loving. The people look for that. You have to be a special type of person to carry the mail.”

“You are the person that will look out for the neighborhood. One of the things that I really tried to do was be on time each day around the route,” he added. “So many people have to meet you to buy stamps and envelopes and send off mail that has to be certified or registered. One of my customers told me, `You know I could always set my clock by you.”‘

“Now, they can’t say that about me,” Dwain said, laughing. “It’s according to how the mail is in the morning.”

He said while he strives to be safe on the road, some accidents are simply unavoidable, particularly in inclement weather. He has not been without his close calls.

“The award is for not having any preventable accidents. That’s not to say I haven’t slipped and slid by the ditch and all this kind of stuff. It’s been times I’ve bogged down in the middle of a dirt road,” Dwain said. “I had to get a friend of mine to come, and he got bogged down.

“I guess the ice and wet weather is the worst thing that you really have to face. Snow is not so bad as long as it’s not so deep,” he said, noting that his four-wheel-drive Jeep Wrangler can get him across just about any terrain.

Dwain said he likes to take extra precautions, particularly in areas where children play.

“I might be wrong, but I’m the type of person that would rather take a minute longer and get there safely than be so fast and have something happen. There’s so many little children playing out there. I would never forgive myself if something would happen. There have been some real close calls out there with deer, too, but I guess the main thing is just taking an extra minute to watch your surroundings,” he said.

Dwain said he appreciates the safety talks he gets from Norway Postmaster Marsha Bull.

“Lots of carriers would probably say they’re very boring, but a lot of times those things will come back to me on the route. Those safety talks help. I’m just grateful that I haven’t had an accident that involved anybody else,” he said.

“We talk safety to our employees every day,” Postal Service spokesman Harry Spratlin said

“Safety on the road is also about the safety of our customers. We have a lot at stake, and we don’t take it for granted. We have 213,881 vehicles and approximately a quarter million vehicle operators/delivery employees who log 1.2 billion miles a year, connecting 32,00 postal facilities which deliver to 151 million addresses in the land,” Spratlin said. “This is the first time in my career I’ve heard of a father and son both earning a Million Mile Award anywhere in the nation.”

Bryan said being organized, particularly with sorting mail, also contributes to safety.

“Do a good job of sorting the mail. Take just a second longer to be certain that the mail is in the right place. Then when you get out there on the mail route, you know that it is sorted correctly, and all you have to do is lay it in the box,” he said.

“That keeps carriers from what they call fingering the mail,” Dwain said. “The postal service tells you not to finger your mail between boxes because that’s where you have an accident; you got your mind on the mail and not the road.”

He said his ultimate goal is to work just as long or longer than his father.

“I want to make sure I can say I’ve worked longer than my daddy,” Dwain said, laughing. “I’m not going to have him say that he worked longer than me.”