A Sergeant assigned to Fort Cavazos, Texas, died in a PMV-4 mishap 22 January 2025 outside the gate of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, at 0845 local. The Soldier was driving his vehicle when it departed the roadway, overturned and struck a tree. According to reports, he was not wearing a seat belt. The involvement of speed, alcohol or drugs is currently unknown.

Since FY20, the Army has lost an average of 36 Soldiers a year to PMV-4 mishaps. This mishap was the 10th PMV-4 fatality of FY25 and below to the number of PMV-4 fatalities for this same time last year. 

Safety tip

In 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that 7% of passenger vehicle occupants killed were unrestrained. This is down from the first half of 2023, when the rate was higher.

Seat belts save lives

One of the safest choices drivers and passengers can make is to buckle up. Many Americans understand the lifesaving value of the seat belt – the national use rate was at 91.9% in 2023. Of those killed at night in 2022, 57% were unrestrained. Understand the potentially fatal consequences of not wearing a seat belt and learn what you can do to make sure you and your family are properly buckled up every time.

The consequences of not wearing, or improperly wearing, a seat belt are clear:

If someone told you there’s a secret to significantly cutting your chance of a fatal injury in a motor vehicle crash, you’d want to know it, right?

1. Buckling up helps keep you safe and secure inside your vehicle, whereas not buckling up can result in being totally ejected from the vehicle in a crash, which is almost always deadly.
2. Airbags are not enough to protect you; in fact, the force of an airbag can seriously injure or even kill you if you’re not buckled up.
3. Improperly wearing a seat belt, such as putting the strap below your arm, puts you and your children at risk in a crash.
4. On average, every 47 minutes, someone not wearing a seat belt dies in a car crash.
5. Seat belt use is the most effective way to stay alive in a crash.
6. Wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of moderate to critical injury by 50% in the front seat of a passenger car.
7. Wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of death by 60% and the risk of injury by 65% in a pickup truck.
8. In the instant you buckle up before driving or riding in the front seat of a car or truck, you cut your risk of a fatal injury in a crash nearly in half. That’s a huge return on the investment of the mere seconds it takes to put on a seat belt.

Tips provided by NHTSA.