FORT CAMPBELL, Ky- Soldiers from 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, utilize the Safety Stand Up events to emphasize the importance of safety May 30 to 1 June, 2012 at Fort Campbell, Ky.
During the three days of the Safety Stand Up, the Soldiers were able to drive a gator, do a 50-yard dash and a field sobriety test while wearing beer goggles that represent the blood alcohol levels from .07 to .25 to understand represent various levels of impairment.
"These days provide time for units to slow down and reflex safety," said Harvey Rude, the Tactical Safety Manager for the 4th BCT, 101st Abn. Div., and native of Bremerton, WA.
Soldiers also learn that they have to be responsible for others around them at all times not just on deployments.
"Prevention is the name of the game," said Rude. "I provide feedback to the units about what really happened/why/how to prevent it from happening again."
"I use to have to use Yankee stadium as an example of how many people were killed in a year on the road, which was 40,000 plus," said Kelly Narowski, a Government Safety Contractor and a native of Saint Joseph, MO., "Now I can use the Oakland A's stadium which holds 33,000 people."
According to the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center state that Army Fatalities as of 04 June 2012, were 462. With only 23%, 108 being combat related. Privately owned vehicle accidents fatalities were at 99 or 68.4% of all Army accidental fatalities.
"The main purpose of me talking is to get them to take the job of driving seriously and be safe on the roads following the laws of the road." said Narowski. "So they use their seat belts and don't drive impaired like I did."
Two months after Kelly graduated with a degree in Health & Exercise Science from Missouri Western State University, she moved to Santa Barbara, California to start an exciting new life. Two months later, Kelly was involved in a serious car crash which left her with severe injuries. As a consequence of the crash, Kelly was permanently paralyzed from the chest down. Since she recognized her crash was a direct result of high risk driving behavior, injury prevention through education became important to her.
Of the 99 fatalities this year, 75 happened off duty, while 24 happened on duty, according to the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center.
"There have only been three wars that this country has fought where there were more combat losses then accidents," said Rude. "They were Korea, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Of the causalities suffered in Operation Iraqi Freedom 75% combat losses and 21% were accidents, compared to WWII which had 43% combat losses and 56% accidents suffered.
Go to https://safety.army.mil for more information about these statistics.
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