Specialist Lawyers Call For Urgent Investigation

Specialist military injuries lawyers have called for an urgent investigation into how three troop carriers collided injuring 11 armed forces personnel.

The incident occurred on the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) largest training ground, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, last night at around 6.30pm with South West Air Ambulance called to the scene to airlift victims to hospital. Wiltshire Police has since confirmed that two people suffered life-changing leg injuries, one with minor head and leg injuries and eight others were ‘walking wounded’.

Both British and Indian troops involved were taking part in the Wessex Storm operation when the crash occurred on a by-way through the Plain near Westdown Camp.

Specialist military injuries lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have now repeated their recent calls for the MoD to do more to prevent training injuries, which account for the vast majority of serious injuries suffered by soldiers.

The Government’s annual MoD Health and Safety Statistics Report reveals that during the 2013-14 financial year 38 per cent of armed forces personnel and MoD civilian employees (760 people) who suffered major or serious injuries did so in training exercises, and needed hospital treatment for more than 24 hours or it left them unable to complete their duties for seven days.

Andrew Buckham, an expert military injuries lawyer at Irwin Mitchell’s Southampton office and former member of the armed forces himself said:

Expert Opinion

“This is a very worrying incident as it’s quite obvious three troop carriers should not be involved in such a collision.

“The immediate focus is on ensuring that the troops injured in this incident receive the best possible care and rehabilitation, while the MoD will no doubt conduct an urgent investigation. It is important that lessons are learnt from this to reduce the risk of similar incidents in future.

“The latest statistics reveal that far too many people are being injured in training exercises. This is even more worrying given that the way our armed forces are being deployed is changing and there will inevitably be a period of intense and different training for our soldiers.

“Clearly being in the armed forces is a potentially dangerous vocation, but we have seen first-hand from the victims of accidents and their families that far too many people are being injured and even killed in avoidable training incidents in the UK and abroad – and this latest incident is a timely reminder of the need to protect our troops with the Strategic Defence and Security Review later this year.” Andrew Buckham - Partner

Read more about Irwin Mitchell's expertise in Military Injury Claims and Military Air Accident Claims.