Dexavion Sanders receives his promotion to the rank of specialist on Aug. 21, 2020, while assigned to the 367th Maintenance Company of the Mississippi National Guard. Sanders was killed Aug. 12, 2023, on his way home to Grafenwoehr, Germany, when his car collided with a roadside tree. (367th Maintenance Company/Facebook)
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — Another U.S. soldier was killed in a car wreck in Bavaria, the latest in a string of major traffic crashes on German roads involving American service members.
Spc. Dexavion Sanders, a 22-year-old Mississippi National Guard member on rotation in Grafenwoehr, died Saturday when his car careened off an A6 highway exit ramp into a group of trees, according to Amberg police.
He was thrown from the car and died at the scene, authorities said. Sanders was on his way home from Nuremberg and had taken the Amberg West exit off the highway, according to police.
Spc. Dexavion Sanders, a soldier assigned to the 367th Maintenance Company of the Mississippi National Guard, poses for an undated photo shared in condolence messages on Facebook. Sanders was killed in a traffic accident in the German state of Bavaria on Aug. 12, 2023. (Facebook)
Although investigators wrote in their report that they think the crash resulted from excessive speed, the cause has yet to be determined.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Spc. Dexavion Sanders, as every one of us in the Knight Brigade and across Team 21 continue to mourn him,” Maj. Vonnie Wright, a spokesman for the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, said Friday. “Our hearts and prayers are with his family as we stand ready to provide our full support during this tragic time.”
Army officials did not publicly announce Sanders’ death. The only notification of it came in a police statement issued Saturday to local media outlets and a report posted days later on the Facebook page of the Army’s National Training Center that did not mention the victim’s name.
Sanders was part of the 367th Maintenance Company. The reserve unit of the Mississippi National Guard is on a nine-month rotation in Germany based out of Tower Barracks.
Sanders’ Facebook page says he was a certified trainer from Memphis, Tenn. In a July 16 post from Nuremberg, he wrote “I love Germany and she loves me.”
Sanders is the fourth U.S. soldier to die in a traffic accident in Bavaria this summer.
The first was Staff Sgt. Travon Walker, a 2nd Cavalry Regiment soldier who was killed in a head-on collision in June on Bavarian state Route 2166.
On June 30, a 20-year old soldier died when the driver of the vehicle he was traveling in lost control on a rain-soaked country road and slammed into a tree near Vilseck.
And on Aug. 1, 1st Lt. Hailey Hodsden was reportedly struck fatally by the hatch of her armored Stryker vehicle after a collision with a semitruck on the A93 highway near Weiden.
Other recent traffic accidents involving American military personnel in Germany have resulted in injuries. In July, a tactical vehicle rollover in Grafenwoehr left eight injured soldiers injured.
In addition, several soldiers were injured Aug. 3 when their van veered into oncoming traffic about 30 miles north of Bremen and hit a car head-on.
Most recently, an active-duty airman was hospitalized Friday after a head-on collision between Landstuhl and Ramstein Air Base in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz.
