WICHITA, Kan. — UPS announced Tuesday that 24 elite drivers from Kansas are among 1,582 newly inducted worldwide into the Circle of Honor — an honorary organization for UPS drivers who have achieved 25 or more years of accident-free driving.

Kansas boasts 170 Circle of Honor drivers with a combined 4,291 years of accident-free driving. Ralph Brown of Erie is the state’s senior-most safe driver, with 40 years of accident-free driving under his belt. There are 1,441 total full-time UPS drivers in Kansas.

Two from the Hutchinson area were included in that list: Kelly Hart and Steven Waters.

UPS’s 127,000 small package drivers are among the safest on the roads, logging more than 3 billion miles a year and delivering nearly 5 billion packages annually.