{"id":39856,"date":"2026-07-24T10:59:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=39856"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:59:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:59:45","slug":"nrlca-statement-on-the-death-of-nrlca-member-umeshkumar-thakkar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/07\/24\/nrlca-statement-on-the-death-of-nrlca-member-umeshkumar-thakkar\/","title":{"rendered":"NRLCA Statement on the Death of NRLCA Member Umeshkumar Thakkar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>July 23, 2026<br \/>\nFor Immediate Release<\/p>\n<p>The National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association (NRLCA) is deeply saddened by the death of rural carrier Umeshkumar Thakkar, who passed away while on duty in Little Elm, Texas, on July 20. He was 58 years old and had served as a rural Part-Time Flexible Carrier (PTF) since 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with Mr. Thakkar\u2019s family, friends, coworkers, and all those affected by this tragic loss.<\/p>\n<p>While the circumstances surrounding Mr. Thakkar\u2019s death remain under investigation, this tragedy comes during a period of extreme heat in North Texas and serves as another painful reminder of the challenging conditions letter carriers often face while serving the American public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe safety and well-being of every postal employee must remain the highest priority. As temperatures continue to reach dangerous levels across much of the country, the NRLCA urges all rural letter carriers to remain vigilant, follow established heat safety protocols, stay hydrated, recognize the signs of heat-related illness, and look out for one another,\u201d said NRLCA President Don Maston.<\/p>\n<p>The NRLCA stands in solidarity with Mr. Thakkar\u2019s loved ones and the entire postal<br \/>\ncommunity during this difficult time and will continue to monitor the investigation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/NRLCA.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-28845\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/NRLCA-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/NRLCA-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/NRLCA-30x30.jpg 30w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 23, 2026 For Immediate Release The National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association (NRLCA) is deeply saddened by the death of rural carrier Umeshkumar Thakkar, who passed away while on duty in Little Elm, Texas, on July 20. He was 58 years old and had served as a rural Part-Time Flexible Carrier (PTF) since 2022. Our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39856"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39858,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39856\/revisions\/39858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}