One death every six weeks: The shocking toll of troops’ training
A BRITISH serviceman dies in a training accident every six weeks, damning figures have revealed.
There have been 125 deaths during Armed Forces exercises in the past 15 years, according to the Ministry of Defence.
During the Iraq War, between 2003- 2009, 179 British servicemen lost their lives.
Troops have been shot dead in mock battles, crushed by armoured vehicles and drowned during river crossings.
It comes days after military chiefs were criticised over deaths of three Territorial Army soldiers during a Special Forces selection march in the Brecon Beacons in July 2013. A coroner blasted the SAS for ‘neglect and delays’ contributing to the soldiers collapsing from heat stroke.
If immediate action had been taken they would have survived, the inquest found.
Last night military injury lawyers demanded top brass take action to reduce fatali- ties. But former commanders said the death toll reflected the need to prepare for war with dangerous equipment and hostile conditions.
The figures, released under Freedom of Information laws, showed the Army had the most fatalities, with 86. The Royal Navy, including the Royal Marines, had 22 and the RAF 17. The statistics include deaths by natural causes, as well as those for which the cause is not yet known.
The frequency of deaths has fallen – between 2000 and 2008 there were ten deaths a year, compared with seven from 2009 to 2014. But critics said the number of troops has also plunged over that time – from about 195,000 to 154,000.
Military injuries specialist Philippa Tuckman said: ‘This is a shocking number of deaths.
‘It is not enough to say, “Well, they are using guns,” or, “We put them in hazardous situations.” That is a reason to take more care. There are detailed guidelines which stress the fact that, if the risk factors are assessed properly and appropriately managed, nearly all injuries can be prevented.’
But Colonel Richard Kemp, who led troops in Afghanistan, said: ‘To be effective, training for war has to be challenging and sometimes dangerous. It is a tragic fact that this type of training sometimes costs lives.
‘I have no doubt however that realistic and demanding military training saves many more lives on the battlefield than it costs on the training ground.’
In September 2011 Fusilier Dean Griffiths, 21, of the 1st Battalion the Royal Welsh, was shot dead on an exercise at a Kent firing range.
A colleague fired two shots at a target wrongly placed against a wooden wall. A bullet went through the wall, hitting Fusilier Griffiths. An inquest said the mistake was not malicious but his family said the MoD had failed to protect a soldier.
In April last year, Private Cameron Laing, 20, was crushed by a truck in a Devon army camp. His inquest found the crew’s fatigue after working more than the 13-hour daily limit was partly to blame.
And the MoD is still investigating the death of Lieutenant Gareth Jenkins, 25, who died in May on a Royal Marines selection march on Dartmoor.
An MoD spokesman said: ‘It will always be necessary to train and test our military personnel to the highest possible level so that they can meet the challenges to national security that we face. Achieving this end does involve individuals having to push themselves and take some risk. However, as an organisation we must ensure that this is balanced with the need to ensure these risks are effectively mitigated.’
‘Injuries can be prevented’