We live on a 2-lane road outside of Richmond. It's 4 or 5 miles down the road to our little dead end side street. The county road has no shoulders, only ditches, and all the mail boxes are on the west side and a very high percentage of the houses are on the east side (there are more large tracts of undeveloped land on the west side - the James River side.)If you think it's a dangerous situation now with a 45 mph speed limit, you should have seen it up until a year or so back when it had been 55 mph forever. Everyone still thinks it's 55 or higher. Life in the country. Thing is the county boat landing is farther down the road and the big bass boat and pontoons on trailers take up all of their lane and don't have room to stop.
"It's been a few years since I've been to the Lily Pad. Nice spot."It's changed a little. They keep expanding.
To get back to the topic, the Post Office apparently has rules about backing up. These delivery trucks have very poor view to the rear. I live on a street with no outlet and a lot of large trucks will go to the end at the cul-de-sac to reverse course rather than back up. It takes a little longer but safer.Years ago I worked at airport pumping aviation gas. We had a "small" 800 gallon truck I usually drove. When I was hired my boss said: "never back up". He said you're driving a bomb here with airplane wings sticking out and all.I feel for the PO lady. She will carry this with her the rest of her life. Sad all the way around.
To get back to the topic, the Post Office apparently has rules about backing up. These delivery trucks have very poor view to the rear. I live on a street with no outlet and a lot of large trucks will go to the end at the cul-de-sac to reverse course rather than back up. It takes a little longer but safer.Years ago I worked at airport pumping aviation gas. We had a "small" 800 gallon truck I usually drove. When I was hired my boss said: "never back up". He said you're driving a bomb here with airplane wings sticking out and all.I feel for the PO lady. She will carry this with her the rest of her life. Sad all the way around.Apparently, she was driving her own vehicle. I have never heard of a PO clerk around my parts driving a Mercedes delivering mail. And it was a 2021 model and for sure it had to have had a back up camera...maybe even a 360 view one
Personally, I do not use my rear cam except for the final feet of parking so that I can get my truck square in the parking space and as far back as possible. Cameras are for folks who do not know how to use mirrors. As one who learned on mirrors, driven trucks my whole life, and towed boats... backing INTO position and preparing for a FORWARD exit is safest. Some folks disagree with this and even get pissy on Facebook about the backer-uppers who take longer to park, but... backing in allows you to inspect the area for danger prior to the reverse and the mirrors give you **100%** visibility as your rear end swings into position. Backing out onto a street is ridiculous, but I don't know the USPS policies on reversing so maybe they allow this unsafe practice. Ideally she would have stayed on the street and walked the 50' up to the house, but that street is very tight so I can see why she wouldn't block the road. It is sad.
Although I’ve been doing this for over 50 years I graduated from “Mirrors only” backing up to using four fields of vision. Both mirrors, and the tailgate and overhead view cameras. The cameras prevent me from running over the hurried pedestrian that may be between my mirrors. Although I am fully in agreement with backing into parking spots for the reasons you mentioned. Fleet vehicles are instructed to back in only for parking. Many of their parking lots are labeled as such. It’s a proven fact that less pedestrians are struck when back in parking is regulated.