Warwick RI — The 6,490 miles of roads in Rhode Island is just one challenge facing a cadre of 6-day-a- week road warriors. These, seven Warwick Post Office letter carriers joined the Million Mile Club for safe driving — accident-free on the streets for 30 years or longer — in maneuvering construction sites, bad weather and multiple ages of drivers.

The Million Mile Award is sponsored by the National Safety Council. The letter carriers who received the award were Donald Barrows, Margaret Enright, Paul Charette, Virginia McGovern and Stephen Ravenell. Two others who received 2 Million Mile Awards were David Matteson and Edwin Gardiner. All of them work on routes that service Warwick, RI, and deliver to an average of 650 customers a day.

“They know how to get the job done — and how to get it done safely. That’s incredible and makes it quite clear to me that our Warwick area postal drivers are professionals,” said David Mastroianni, USPS Connecticut Valley District manager to employees.

A postal employee may be nominated for lifetime enrollment in the National Safety Council’s Million Mile Club if he or she drives without being involved in a preventable motor vehicle accident for a cumulative total of one million miles or 30 years.

“The award affects the Warwick community as much as it does our letter carriers,” said Postmaster Brian Holt. “It sends a clear message to residents that postal drivers put safety first when traveling the city streets.”

Warwick Post Office is home to 80 city delivery routes. The office recorded only three motor vehicle accidents during fiscal year 2015.

Nationally, postal employees including letter carriers and truck drivers log more than 1.3 billion miles annually with 211,000 vehicles when delivering to America’s more than 155 million addresses.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

# # #

Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.

For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional, please go to about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf.

Follow us on twitter.com/USPS and like us at facebook.com/USPS. For more information about the Postal Service, go to usps.com and usps.com/postalfacts.