A longtime United Parcel Service (UPS) employee less than two weeks away from retiring was struck and killed by one of the company’s vehicles while he was at work in St Louis, triggering a federal labor investigation along with an intense outpouring of grief from his family and colleagues.
Paul Roberts, 63, was on duty at the UPS customer care center in Earth City, Missouri, on the night of 4 September when a company vehicle hit him, authorities said.
Roberts, of nearby St Charles, Missouri, died at the scene. The vehicle’s driver cooperated with investigators who responded to reports of the fatal accident, local police said in a statement provided to the Guardian on Thursday.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) is investigating Roberts’ death, a process that could take up to six months, an agency spokesperson said in a separate statement on Thursday.
While neither Osha nor the police released more details, Roberts’ story quickly gained attention beyond St Louis because family members told local news media that he had planned to retire on 17 September after 44 years of working at UPS.
Roberts had started with UPS sorting packages as a teenager, eventually working various jobs for the delivery company over the ensuing decades, the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper reported. He had most recently operated as a feeder truck driver and was looking forward to gardening while collecting his retirement benefits, having only married his wife, Barb, in March after 37 years together, according to the newspaper, which spoke to Roberts’ sister, Donna Schraer.
“It’s just unbelievable – that close to finally [being] able to relax,” Schraer told the Post-Dispatch.
The St Louis news station KSDK separately reported that it was contacted by UPS employees who were worried “about the dark conditions the night Roberts was killed, in addition to ongoing safety concerns”.
Asked for comment about Roberts on Thursday, UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer said in a statement to the Guardian: “We focus on the safety of our people every day. We train our people to prevent accidents and injuries and teach them how to stay healthy and safe.”
Mayer’s statement said UPS “invested more than 35[m] hours and over $2[bn] on safety training” since 2021. His statement also said: “We’re saddened by the tragic situation in Earth City. Our heartfelt thoughts are with the family, friends and coworkers of our team member.”
Osha did not list any other fatalities at the site where Roberts was killed, according to agency information cited by the Post-Dispatch. But the newspaper also noted that two past workplace incidents reported there resulted in amputations, and others resulted in heat-related injuries, though none involved vehicles.
The Teamsters Local 688 labor union to which Roberts belonged described his death as “a tragedy”. The union’s statement also said: “Our members’ safety is priority one when on the job.”
Besides Roberts’ sister and wife, his survivors include his children and grandchildren, KSDK reported. They all would remember his legacy as a “hard-working family man”, she told the channel.
“It’s sad he’s not going to be able to celebrate” his retirement with his loved ones, Schraer also told KSDK. “I hate just being shocked that this is all going on right now.”