Pfc. Kirby Zorn (19) was killed in a motorcycle crash
Published: Oct 23, 2008 @ 12:20 PM
Pfc. Kirby Zorn (19)
Date: Aug 09, 2008
Cause of Death: Motorcycle accident
Location: Camp Lejeune, NC
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N.C. Marine killed in motorcycle crash
A private first class was killed in a motorcycle crash in North Carolina on Friday night, police said.
Pfc. Kirby L. Zorn, 19, of Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, died near Camp Lejeune following a crash about 6:53 p.m., said Trooper J.E. Brewer, a spokesman for the North Carolina Highway Patrol. Zorn was pronounced dead at the scene, Brewer said.
The death marks the 23rd Marine motorcycle fatality since Oct. 1, extending the Corps' record for Marines killed on motorcycles in a fiscal year despite increased efforts to curb the trend. The previous record was 19, set in fiscal 2007.
Zorn's death occurred after he went off a slight curve on U.S. 17 outside Jacksonville, hitting a guard rail. He was traveling an estimated 60 mph in a 55-mph zone and was wearing a helmet, authorities said.
Brewer said it could not be determined immediately if alcohol was a factor in the crash, but none was evident at the scene. The results of toxicology testing were pending, he said.
In a July 23 interview with Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, the top enlisted member of the Corps, Kent acknowledged the number of fatalities in fiscal 2008 were a "big increase," and said the Corps needed to empower its noncommissioned officers to take control of the situation, since the NCOs best know junior Marines, the group most likely to die on motorcycles.
"We're delegating authority down to the NCOs to do the safety checks, to get us safety briefs and to say whether a Marine should not be going on liberty because he is a threat to safety," Kent said. "The NCOs are engaging throughout the Marine Corps, and we are working on it whenever we can."
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