Father says system killed SAS march son

THE father of an Army reservist who died after collapsing on an SAS test march ha s called f or improved safety measures to prevent other soldiers suffering the same fate.

Speaking ahead of inquest verdicts on his son and two other soldiers who died of heatstroke in July 2013, the father of Corporal James Dunsby said “the system” had failed on the day of the tragedy.

The inquest, due to conclude today, heard Cpl Dunsby collapsed near a main road in the final stages of a 16-mile march on the Brecon Beacons amid “heatwave” conditions.

Evidence heard by the Birmingham Cor oner suggested the 31-year-old was alone and possibly in distress for as long as 90 minutes before help reached him.

The soldier, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, died in hospital two weeks later from multi-organ failure caused by heatstroke.

In an interview at the site where his son died, David Dunsby said: “The system failed and that’s what killed my son. There should be somebody there to help them and we know on the day there wasn’t. That system let me down as a father and let my son down.”

Claiming the Army were fortunate that more soldiers had not died, Mr Dunsby added: “I would just wish somebody at a certain level would just come to me and say ... ‘we are making changes, we understand things went wrong on the day’.

“There were lots of people there that day. Not to be found for an hour and a half, it just seems so incredible.

“As long as they make changes so it won’t happen, that’s all we want. Nothing can bring James back but we need to make sure that there are things in place that will protect all the other soldiers who will be doing the same thing. To me I don’t blame any particular person, I blame the system and the system failed. It’s as easy as that, the system failed.”