A 20-year-old Specialist and a 22-year-old Specialist assigned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, died in a PMV-4 mishap 13 October 2023 in Florence, Kentucky, at 2358 local. The Soldiers reportedly were traveling on the interstate and were involved in a vehicle accident. The Kentucky State Police (KSP) responded and pronounced the driver dead at the scene. The other Soldier was ejected from the vehicle and transported to the local hospital, where she died from her injuries. Alcohol is suspected as a contributing factor and seat belts were not used. It is currently unknown if speed was a factor. The unit/safety points of contact are waiting for KSP to release its final report.
Since FY19, the Army has lost an average of 35 Soldiers a year to PMV-4 mishaps. This mishap was the first and second fatalities of FY24 and above the number of fatalities for the same time last year.
Safety tip
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 91.6% in 2022. Of those killed at night in 2021, 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.
In 2021, 26,325 passenger vehicle occupants were killed. About 50% of those killed were not buckled (based on known seat belt use.)
- Buckling up helps keep you safe and secure inside your vehicle, whereas not buckling up can result in being ejected from the vehicle in a crash, which is almost always deadly.
- Air bags are not enough to protect you; in fact, the force of an air bag can seriously injure or even kill you if you’re not buckled up.
- Improperly wearing a seat belt, such as putting the strap below your arm, puts you and your children at risk in a crash.
The benefits of buckling up are equally clear:
If you buckle up in the front seat of a passenger car, you can reduce your risk of:
- Fatal injury by 45% (Kahane, 2015)
- Moderate to critical injury by 50%
If you buckle up in a light truck, you can reduce your risk of:
- Fatal injury by 60% (Kahane, 2015)
- Moderate to critical injury by 65% (NHTSA, 1984)
Every day, about 37 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that's one person every 39 minutes. In 2021, 13,384 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths — a 14% increase from 2020. These deaths were all preventable.
Alcohol is a substance that reduces the function of the brain, impairing thinking, reasoning and muscle coordination. All these abilities are essential to operating a vehicle safely.
As alcohol levels rise in a person’s system, the negative effects on the central nervous system increase. Alcohol is absorbed directly through the walls of the stomach and small intestine. Then it passes into the bloodstream, where it accumulates until it is metabolized by the liver. A person's alcohol level is measured by the weight of the alcohol in a certain volume of blood. This is called blood alcohol concentration, or BAC. At a BAC of .08 grams of alcohol per deciliter (g/dL) of blood, crash risk increases exponentially. Because of this risk, it’s illegal in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to drive with a BAC of .08 or higher, except in Utah where the BAC limit is .05.
However, even a small amount of alcohol can affect driving ability. In 2021, there were 2,266 people killed in alcohol-related crashes where a driver had a BAC of .01 to .07 g/dL.
BAC is measured with a breathalyzer, a device that measures the amount of alcohol in a driver’s breath, or by a blood test.
The Effects of Blood Alcohol Concentration
BLOOD ALCOHOL CONCENTRATION (BAC) IN G/DL, TYPICAL EFFECTS, PREDICTABLE EFFECTS ON DRIVING
.02, Some loss of judgment; relaxation, slight body warmth, altered mood. Decline in visual functions (rapid tracking of a moving target), decline in ability to perform two tasks at the same time (divided attention).
.05, Exaggerated behavior, may have loss of small-muscle control (e.g., focusing your eyes), impaired judgment, usually good feeling, lowered alertness, release of inhibition. Reduced coordination, reduced ability to track moving objects, difficulty steering, reduced response to emergency driving situations.
.08, Muscle coordination becomes poor (e.g., balance, speech, vision, reaction time and hearing), harder to detect danger; judgment, self-control, reasoning and memory are impaired. Concentration, short-term memory loss, speed control, reduced information processing capability (e.g., signal detection, visual search), impaired perception.
.10, Clear deterioration of reaction time and control, slurred speech, poor coordination, and slowed thinking. Reduced ability to maintain lane position and brake appropriately.
.15, Far less muscle control than normal, vomiting may occur (unless this level is reached slowly or a person has developed a tolerance for alcohol), major loss of balance. Substantial impairment in vehicle control, attention to driving task, and in necessary visual and auditory information processing.