I struck a doe on February 13. My vehicle suffered about $1,800
worth of damage, but the animal fared much worse — its carcass lay
on the side of the road for a week.
As a former carrier for the News & Observer of
Raleigh, until roughly two years ago, I’m surprised this didn’t
happen to me much sooner. I had a rural route that ran about 50
miles, and wildlife sightings — especially deer — were
common.
On the day before my collision, however, another newspaper
deliveryman was not so fortunate. Stephen Lee, who delivers the
Star-News in Wilmington, N.C., struck and killed Frank
Sutton, who was walking north in the northbound lane apparently
near his home at about 6:30 Sunday morning. Lee was charged with
misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, and a state trooper said Lee
had been driving on the wrong side of the road when he hit
Sutton.
According to the report in the Star-News, Lee’s driving
behavior was only the most recent cited by law enforcement in
Wilmington. Another of the newspaper’s carriers was warned twice
about the practice in January.
Well, it’s time the secret (if it is indeed a secret) came out:
newspaper carriers are trained to drive on the wrong side
of the road. It’s not in any instruction manual, or necessarily
even spoken between management and delivery people. But trust me,
it’s their policy, and Star-News home delivery manager
Scott Wiggs even admitted it. In a December letter explaining
policy changes to some of the paper’s subscribers, he wrote,
“Driving on the wrong side of the road is a standard operational
procedure, not just at this paper but at papers around the
country.”
From my personal experience, I can tell you that the manager
overseeing my territory for The N&O trained me
(silently) to swerve to the left all night long, in order to
(un)safely (and dryly) deposit customers’ papers in their mailbox
tubes. Unlike many postal carriers, newspaper deliverers don’t have
a steering wheel on the right side of their dashboards. They often
must instead cross the road into the oncoming traffic lane in order
to make deliveries.
My route was very rural, winding through farmland and much
forest, but I still learned the hard way that this practice could
be dangerous, even on infrequently traveled roads. One night on a
long two-lane straightaway where the speed limit was 55
miles-per-hour, I had to cross over to make one of my many
left-hand paper tube deliveries. I had my emergency flashers on
(also policy, and I believe required by law for delivery vehicles)
and far in my rear distance I saw a pair of headlights. Plenty of
time, I thought, to make the delivery, wait at the tube for the
rear vehicle to continue in the right lane and pass, and then I
could continue on my way.
I was wrong. The headlights belonged to a pickup truck that was
moving much faster than I perceived, and the driver decided to pass
me on the left (there was a broken yellow line on the road) just as
I was drifting similarly to make the delivery. Wham! He rear-ended
me, and I still have the crumpled rear fender as a reminder.
Fortunately that incident didn’t lead to any injuries, or worse.
Thinking back, considering all the bundling, binding and bagging of
newspapers I had to do while completing my route on time, it’s a
miracle that I didn’t wind up in a hospital somewhere
along the way. Add grogginess, darkness, foul weather, an
unrelenting deadline, and unpredictable late night drivers, and you
have a potentially disastrous cocktail making the rounds every
night.
Apparently though, newspapers could care less. After the
Lee/Sutton tragedy in Wilmington, the Star-News report
made sure readers knew that “Lee is an independent contractor, not
a Star-News employee.” Publisher Robert J. Gruber said,
according to the paper, that all contracted drivers were
responsible for complying with the law. Translation: “Don’t blame
us.”
Newspapers like things that way with their carriers. They won’t
employ them directly because the job is too dangerous, and it’s too
costly to insure them and pay them properly. It’s much easier to
push those costs onto the delivery person as a bogus “contractor”
and try to escape the legal liabilities when it becomes
necessary.
Newspaper editorial boards often like to stand up for the little
guy, and call employers to account when workers are treated
unfairly. They also howl when public safety is compromised due to
corporate negligence. Well, in this area they need to call for
their own house to get in order before somebody else gets
killed.
