Rural route driver of 36 years honored for unblemished record

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HUGHESVILLE - Lewis "Jim" Pearson of Muncy has driven the equivalent of 40 trips around the planet, delivering mail without ever once getting into a vehicle accident, according to the U.S. Postal Service.

The 65-year-old rural route delivery carrier with the Hughesville Post Office was inducted Tuesday into the prestigious National Safety Council's "Million Mile Club" for completing 30 years of accident-free driving on the job.

Surprised with a cake - signifying as much with blue letters depicting his car on the road - Pearson's managers handed him a plaque and jacket at a ceremony inside the office, with coworkers looking on, snapping photographs for keepsakes and hoping to achieve the distinguished driving record themselves.

Pearson, who retires Thursday after 36 years of service, was initially speechless and humbled by the experience.

"After a while," he said, "you get to know where the bad spots are," referring to his 80-mile rural carrier delivery route around the region.

While driving about 80 miles for five days a week for 36 years doesn't amount to one million miles, add the days when he filled in for those who were sick and it figures to at least several hundred thousand miles, officials at the ceremony said.

Besides, the postal service qualifies drivers for the distinction when they drive accident free for 30 years, according to Mark Hnasko, a postal service spokesman.

"Safety talks here," said Pearson, a former automobile mechanic and owner of Pearson's Bike Shop, when asked how he was able to stay out of trouble, without as much as a fender-bender.

Pearson considers most of the motorists who pass him by as he drops off mail to be considerate of the carriers.

Pearson said he typically starts his day at 7 a.m. and works until the mid-afternoon five days a week, with every Saturday off. Obviously, during holiday rush and inclement weather, the work takes longer.

He drives his own vehicle and probably has used 12 to 15 during his career.

With a postal career that began in April 1973, leaving Thursday means he is officially retiring.

Terry Baker, a safety specialist for the Central Pennsylvania District of the postal service, said rural route carriers face multiple hazards daily such as road surface problems, ice and snow, animals crossing, pedestrians darting into traffic, other vehicles and storms and wind.

"I don't know if it is luck, skill or a combination of both, but he has performed his job with excellence," Baker, a 1983 graduate of Hughesville High School, said. "Not many can say they drove for 30 or more years accident free."