Accidents Outside Combat Take Toll on U.S. Military

WASHINGTON — Writing to his mother from Iraq in early May, Lance Cpl. Matthew R. Smith said he planned to be home in Anderson, Ind., to celebrate his 21st birthday later that month.

He never made it.

It wasn't an enemy sniper or rocket-propelled grenade that ended the young Marine reservist's life. After crisscrossing the desert for months at the wheel of a Humvee, Smith was speeding south along a northbound shoulder one night when he slammed his vehicle into an Army tractor-trailer abandoned on the side of the highway. He died of a massive head injury.

Smith had been driving for 15 hours with little break, and the Humvee's radio, speedometer and seat belts were not functioning, said his lone passenger, Lance Cpl. Antonio J. Delk. One of its low-beam lights also was out, and Smith was using his high beams sparingly so as not to blind oncoming traffic. When the trailer suddenly materialized, there was no time to react.

Months later, Smith's mother said her son's loss would somehow be easier to accept if he had been killed by hostile fire.

"It was a stupid accident; it shouldn't have happened," Patricia T. Smith said. "He'd be ticked off because he would think he didn't die the way a Marine should die."

It is not only Iraqi resistance that is cutting down U.S. forces at an alarming rate. Since the war started on March 20, more than 80 have died in noncombat accidents. That's nearly one-fifth of the total fatalities among soldiers. Many, like Smith, were killed in military vehicles. Others perished when helicopters crashed or weapons misfired.

This toll of preventable loss, which is by no means limited to the Middle East battlefront, has alarmed the Pentagon. A total of 575 servicemen and women died in accidents worldwide during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the second straight year noncombat fatalities have risen and a 64% increase since 1998. The death rate for active-duty personnel in accidents rose last year to the highest level in eight years -- 35.63 per 100,000 individuals.

The recent increases occurred as the U.S. fought wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and troops found themselves in treacherous conditions and unfamiliar terrain. Nonetheless, most fatal accidents in the last three years occurred in the United States. In fact, half the fatalities happened in private motor vehicles -- exacting a high price in lost soldiers and increased health-care costs.