By the Numbers - Nov. 2, 2015
43% and 19%
The percentage of accidental deaths in the U.S. Army from 2005-2011 caused, respectively, by motor vehicles and drugs/alcohol, according to a December 2014 article in the journal Military Medicine -- Mortality Surveillance in the U.S. Army, 2005-2011. By way of comparison, in the U.S. general population, the two most common causes of accidental death were drugs/alcohol (36%) and motor vehicles (35%).
The researchers not that the "highest adjusted rates of deaths" in the Army during this time period were combat-related, but as intensive combat decreased in 2008, there was (as might be expected) a "statistically significant" decline in combat-related mortality.
43% and 19%
The percentage of accidental deaths in the U.S. Army from 2005-2011 caused, respectively, by motor vehicles and drugs/alcohol, according to a December 2014 article in the journal Military Medicine -- Mortality Surveillance in the U.S. Army, 2005-2011. By way of comparison, in the U.S. general population, the two most common causes of accidental death were drugs/alcohol (36%) and motor vehicles (35%).
The researchers not that the "highest adjusted rates of deaths" in the Army during this time period were combat-related, but as intensive combat decreased in 2008, there was (as might be expected) a "statistically significant" decline in combat-related mortality.