News & Views, Volume 12, Number 3, March 1990 Page: 4
12 p. : ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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Mail truck
crash
destroys
disability
cases
A U.S. Postal Service truck, en-
route from San Antonio to Dallas,
crashed and burned January 22
just outside Georgetown. The
driver was killed.
Its cargo included over 256
(mostly completed) Disability
Determination Services case files
along with other assorted Central
Office and DDS mail bound for
TRC and Social Security offices in
ZIP codes 75000 through 76400
along the I-35 corridor between
Waco and Wichita Falls. About
one-third of the case files were
"allowances" for disability
benefits.
After sifting through the
charred remains of the mail, post-
al workers were able to re-route
some of the lightly-damaged mail,
but other pieces had to be
returned to the point of origin.
The DDS mailroom got back
100 badly burned case files on
disability claimants. These files
were sent to a contractor in Fort
Worth who will freeze-dry, clean
and restore them to prevent fur-
ther damage.
'The first couple of days were
exciting because we didn't know
what we had," says Gail Mayfield,
systems manager.
DDS officials are now checking
files on a master list of cases
shipped to see which ones got
through and which ones may
have to be recreated from
scratch. At this writing, it's not
4 TRC News & Views
March 1990It's not known
how many files
were completely
destroyed4
D. Larson, supervisor of mail services in DDS, gathers up case files damaged in
the January 22 mail truck fire. Charred files were sorted into plastic bags for ship-
ment to the Steamatic company's document restoration outlet in Fort Worth.
There, they will be freeze-dried as one step of the recovery process.known how many files were com-
pletely destroyed.
In terms of inconvenience to
claimants, some may have
received soggy notices and some
may have to re-sign forms. Initial
disability payments to claimants
who were allowed benefits may
also be slowed down.
DDS is exploring options for
reconstructing files involved in
the crash. It may be that only
minimal work needs to be done
on damaged or destroyed files. Atbest, however, it will take at least
a month to assess the total
damage and bring the files back
up to date.
Central Office mail damage
was minimal according to Lee
Henderson, office services super-
visor. Only three warrants
(checks) were returned and had
to be reissued. "Fortunately, it
was the lightest 'warrant' day of
the month," she says.
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Texas Rehabilitation Commission. News & Views, Volume 12, Number 3, March 1990, periodical, March 1990; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1033087/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.