A U.S. Marine died during a training exercise Wednesday at Camp Pendleton in Southern California, military officials said Thursday.
Around 1:45 p.m. local time, the Marine was involved in a “tactical vehicle mishap” during routine training and died of their injuries, the I Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement.
The military is withholding the name of the Marine pending next of kin notification, and the cause of the incident is under investigation.
Camp Pendleton is currently holding live-fire training with high explosive munitions through Sunday, part of an annual, large-scale training exercise known as Steel Knight, but the death was not related to the drills, officials told The Associated Press.
No additional details were given.
Vehicle accidents have been a common, non-combat cause of death for service members in the past decade.
In April, two Marines deployed in support of the Trump administration’s border mission were killed in a vehicle accident in New Mexico when the driver attempted to pass another vehicle and veered off the road to avoid oncoming traffic, crashing into a concrete wall.
The Army has attributed most vehicle deaths to troops not wearing a seatbelt or not having a functional one available.
In 2022 Military Times reported that in all of the Army’s fatal on-duty ground tactical vehicle accidents since 2018, every soldier who died wasn’t wearing a functional seatbelt.
Such examples include an April 25, 2022, incident where a soldier died at Yakima Training Area, Wash., when his truck rolled down a hill. Three days later, four paratroopers were ejected from a Humvee that rolled over at Fort Bragg, N.C., killing one.
Located on the coast 40 miles north of San Diego, the I Marine Expeditionary Force is the largest of the three Marine expeditionary forces.