VICTOR — Residents on a rural Victor road have not had mail delivery from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) since mid-June, when a driver went off the side of Bear Creek Trail.
The USPS claims the road is to blame; however, the county commissioners and residents say a crash report details that human error caused the crash.
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"There was a substitute driver for the USPS because our regular driver was on his first day of vacation. He went off the road and he got seriously injured. It's a huge tragedy that he got injured," resident Ron Wirth told MTN.
The mail delivery stopped on Bear Creek Trail after an accident on June 16.
USPS spokesperson Janella Biggs shared in a statement, “The safety of our employees and the public is our top priority." She continued, "Due to road and access conditions in the area, delivery has been temporarily postponed."
Wirth says being without mail delivery this long has caused a strain on those in the neighborhood.
"There's over 40 households, and many of those are handicapped, elderly, military veterans, and many of them either can't drive or shouldn't drive, and they're required to go down to the post office to pick up their mail," Wirth explained.
Wirth drives Bear Creek Trail every day. He says it recently was worked on and re-graded.
"Trash trucks come up here, UPS comes up here, FedEx comes up here, Amazon comes up here. Semis delivering all kinds of things. They come up here. None of them have a problem," Wirth stated.
The Ravalli County Commissioners sent a letter to the Victor Postmaster requesting mail delivery be reinstated for the entire area as they say the road is not to blame.
While MTN has not independently verified the accident report, the commissioners' letter reads, “We are in receipt of the Highway Patrol Accident Report which indicates there were no problems with the road itself and the accident was due to driver error.”
Biggs said, “Delivery vehicles will resume service to the affected area once the road conditions are repaired and the route is confirmed safe for travel, or when an approved temporary alternative is in place.”
Mail delivery was reinstated along a lower portion of the road on September 16, yet residents in the upper reaches are still without service.
