Posted on 06/01/2015 11:13:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Oops! A British army tank drove over an oncoming Toyota on a public road on Monday, crushing the bonnet in the process.
For the second time this year, a British tank has been involved in a public crash while out on exercise in Germany.
This time a tank drove over the bonnet of Toyota which was being driven by an 18-year-old woman. The soldiers were able to rescue the woman from the car and no serious injuries were reported.
In a similar incident in February, blamed on a mechanical failure, a British tank drove into the garden of an elderly couple in Paderborn.
But, speaking to The Local, a spokesman for the British Army was reluctant to take any blame for the crash.
“The German military police are suggesting it was the Toyota driver’s fault. They’re saying she did not err on the side of caution. Whether the German civil police agree is another matter,” he said.
The spokesperson could not confirm whether the tank was going forward or reversing at the time.
When asked whether the two crashes so far in 2015 suggest a pattern is developing, the spokesperson said: “It isn’t a pattern. They are two very different types of vehicle.”
Did tank drivers need their training re-assessed?
“Not at all. Our tank crews go through a very rigorous training process,” said the spokesperson, adding that three men monitor the road “which is why they were able to stop soon enough.”
The view from the turret gave “ideal visibility” of the road, he said.
“You can never rule out mechanical failure. But our vehicles are maintained to the highest of standards.”
Haven’t you seen the stupid teaser headline click bait all over the web? The headline just needs that line to make it complete.
Never noticed it on the web, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it on one of those wild car chase shows. Anyway, they can’t get much more wild than that one. US Army tank running over parked cars and attempting to go the wrong way on the freeway. That’s when they got through the hatch and shot the guy. He nearly killed an entire family when he ran over their car with them inside. Fortunately, he didn’t run over the part where they were.
We are so screwed.
In 1974, I was serving in the U.S. Coast Guard in Kargabarun, Turkey, about 60km southwest of Istanbul. At that time, the Turks and the Greeks got into it over Cyprus again. There was a Turkish tank division near us, and they took off hell-for-leather towards the Greek border. The Turks couldn’t afford the low-boy trailers to transport the tanks, so the entire division of M60’s is going down the road, on their tracks, with their turrets reversed, so they won’t break the gun if they run into anything. A civilian in the locally-produced version of a Fiat thought he was going to pass the column of tanks. Cut in front of one too close, and that tank ran right over him. The Turks weren’t going to stop for a little matter like a stupid civilian, so the entire remaining column of tanks continued to drive over the remains of the car. By the time they all passed, the Fiat looked like a beer can that had been run over, only larger.
We came down to Kargabarun to play ya'all in volley ball back in '78. U.S. Army Det 67 (TUSLOG).
It was fun.
5.56mm
I was there 74-75. We were TUSLOGDET52. One time we made a sign and put in on the front gate saying we were STALAG 52. The CO was not amused. Were you at Chockmakli? (sp) We got to go up there once to help them “dispose” of some of the ammo they were supposed to use in training each month.
In return, the Army gave us a bunch of these GI hotdogs the grunts were having to eat every day for lunch. None of us Coasties could manage more than one bite. When the cook threw them out the back door for the base dogs to eat, even our dogs wouldn’t touch them, they were used to better food than that!
Cakmakli. There is an umlach somewhere.
Yeah, ya’ll had both the facilities and the chow.
The war over Cyprus really put a kink in everything.
Nice to know you.
5.56mm
An Army friend in the 1960s would follow columns of US tanks—writing US checks as they took out signs, gardens, mailboxes, and the corners of buildings. (Narrow roads).
When I was stationed in Germany in the mid-1960's, a German driver made the one-time mistake of cutting in and out of a line of Chieftain tanks belonging to the British Army of the Rhein on their way to a gunnery exercise. The difference between that incident and this one, the passage of years excepted, was that the vehicle involved was a Volkswagon rather than a Toyota.
Unfortunately for the VW driver, the lead tank in the column, the last one he needed to pass and be on his merry way, suddenly came to a complete halt from a speed of around 35-40 miles per hour. The VW driver cranked his wheel as hard as he could to the left, likely hoping to pass on that side of the tank, but alas, not enough room. And unfortunately, the driver of the tank he had just passed had the same thought and also cut to the left side, unfortunately inhabited by the now-halted VW. It did not make much of a speed bump.
The NATO reporting paperwork even in those days was massive, more so if any participants were killed. Happily, the crushed VW contained a still alive but terrified driver, whose hands could not be prised from the steering wheel, and who was drooling and mumbling incoherently.
Nevertheless, the tank driver who had crushed the VW began the paperwork process, one of the first orders of business being to try to read the mangled number plate of the VW. Some work with a tanker's 9-foot-long prybar and a sledge hammer moved enough of the crumpled-over metal for a good reading, and the next line on the form inquired as to the damage to the civilian vehicle. Ina classic example of Brit squaddie understatement, he wrote:
Tread scratches on roof.
This is known to those of us in the tanker business as being in travel lock.
Durn! Those Toyotas must be made of stout stuff, to have survived one such collision with a tank, then to be squashed again. Still, the Toyota trucks have a pretty good reputation for that sort of toughness.
The problem was not limited to difficulties on the public roads. And the German trains had VERY limited possibilities as to maneuvering around, and weren't terribly quick on the braking either.
I had one of those. I like them a lot- they always just go when you need them to.
Ouch!
Treadhead Ping. Incoming.
Main battle tanks always have right of way. Always.
In the same time frame at Fort Knox, a guy got pissed off at the MPs for something or other, “acquired” an M-60, and rammed the corner of the MP station with it. He then attempted to take off down the road, heading who knows where. An alert MP managed to jump on the tank as it was moving away, and found an open turret hatch. Guy stopped when faced with a 1911, and I’m sure was sent to Leavenworth.
Failure of smaller vehicle to yield right of way results in unintentional immediate redecoration and public sculpture.
Hat tip to snippy_about_it who pinged me.
“Bloody ‘Ell lady! Dincha see the tank???”
She looks at the camouflage paint job and pensively says, “Wot? Oy wasn’t supposed to was Oy?”
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