A sailor on leave in Utah was flung from a rolling vehicle and killed.
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Daniella Juliana Casey, 24, was a backseat passenger in a Honda Acura when the car drifted off the southbound ramp connecting Interstate 215 to State Route 21 near West Valley City and began rolling around 2:10 a.m. Monday, Utah Highway Patrol officials say.
Casey was ejected and died. The unidentified driver and front seat passenger were transported to a local hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
“She appears to have been the only one in the car who wasn’t wearing a seat belt,” Utah Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Nicholas Street told Navy Times.
Accident investigators are wrapping up their probe into the cause of the deadly crash but Street said initial indications pointed to a case of “drowsy driving.”
No charges have been filed.
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Casey’s military records released by Virginia-based Expeditionary Strike Group Two indicated that she enlisted in the Navy on May 21, 2013.
Over the next five years, Casey received three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals and an Army Achievement Medal.
She reported to Amphibious Construction Battalion 2, Sea Duty Component, in Virginia Beach, Virginia on Dec. 27, 2016, 11 days after she was advanced to Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class.
According to the Naval Safety Center, 14 sailors have died in off-duty vehicle accidents since Jan. 1, including two in August.
A petty officer died on Aug. 4 when his motorcycle left a street in Newport News, Virginia and rammed into a tree. Three days earlier, a hit-and-run driver killed a sailor who was sitting on the right shoulder of a highway near Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Prine came to Navy Times after stints at the San Diego Union-Tribune and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He served in the Marine Corps and the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. His awards include the Joseph Galloway Award for Distinguished Reporting on the military, a first prize from Investigative Reporters & Editors and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
