USAREUR troops under 27 will get driver’s course

[unhappycamper]

USAREUR troops under 27 will get driver’s course
By Matt Millham, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, December 7, 2008

Starting in January, U.S. Army Europe soldiers younger than 27 will have to undergo advanced driver safety training, according to Installation Management Command-Europe.

The mandatory class, called the Advanced Driver’s Course, is the latest in a series of lessons intended to cut down on traffic accidents, which claimed the lives of 130 off-duty soldiers across the Army in fiscal 2008, according to the Army’s Combat Readiness/Safety Center.

Like the Intermediate Driver’s Course, which debuted in 2007, the advanced course targets those 26 and younger because, statistically, they have a "much higher incidence of traffic accidents, injuries and fatalities," Patricia Jackson, an IMCOM-Europe safety and occupational health specialist, wrote in an e-mail response to questions. "After 26 years of age, these numbers drop dramatically."

Statistics from the combat readiness center "show that Soldiers are five to six times as likely to die in traffic accidents in their POVs (personally owned vehicles) in comparison to when they are downrange," according to Jackson.

Since Oct. 1, 21 soldiers have died and one soldier was disabled in vehicle accidents while off duty, according to statistics from the Army’s Combat Readiness/Safety Center Web site. During the same time, one soldier died in an accident involving a combat vehicle and four other soldiers died in nontactical Army vehicles.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59262