Army defends Strykers after at least seven rollovers
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune
Last updated: February 21st, 2005 02:35 AM
The two vehicles that plunged into a canal Dec. 8, 2003, near Duluiyah, Iraq, weren’t the only Strykers to roll over during the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division’s deployment to Iraq.
The Army investigated at least five other rollover accidents involving Strykers during the brigade’s year in Iraq, according to the U.S. Army Safety Center.
They include the July 14, 2004, accident near Tal Afar that killed the driver, Pfc. Jesse Martinez, 20, and Cpl. Demetrius Rice, 24. Officials said Martinez swerved to avoid an oncoming water truck and rolled his Stryker down a roadside embankment.
The Army says rollover accidents occur with all its combat vehicles.
“We don’t believe that the Stryker is more of a risk for rollover than any other vehicle with have in our inventory,” Col. Peter Fuller, the Stryker program manager, told reporters during a recent news briefing on the vehicles.
The 3rd Brigade was the first to use the Army’s new armored vehicles in combat.
Officials at the Safety Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., said their investigators’ reports of the Stryker accidents are not yet available for public release. The agency released a list of its investigations and a brief synopsis:
The cases include:
• Dec. 16, 2003: Eight days after the Dec. 8 rollovers, a driver ran off an unimproved road and rolled into an irrigation pond. A soldier was thrown from the vehicle but wasn’t seriously hurt, and there were no other injuries.
• Feb. 20, 2004: A Stryker driver swerved to avoid hitting a dump truck and rolled his vehicle, causing undisclosed injuries and damage.
• March 28, 2004: A Stryker driver and a passenger were injured when their vehicle rolled while going down a trail.
• July 15, 2004: A Stryker swerved to avoid an oncoming car. Three soldiers suffered unspecified injuries.
Lt. Col. Karl Reed, commander of the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, said two of his Strykers rolled over in Iraq, including the one in which Rice and Martinez were killed. He said he’s served in units that ride in Bradley Fighting Vehicles and others that ride in Humvees.
“I don’t see anything that I can pinpoint to say the Stryker is more vulnerable than any other vehicle,” Reed said.
He said driving in Iraq is difficult, with wadis and canals and other terrain hazards. In addition, the civilian drivers are notoriously reckless and pose a hazard, he and others said.
A total of 123 U.S. soldiers have been killed in vehicle accidents in Iraq, many of them rollovers.
Among recent cases, three drowned Feb. 13 when their armored Humvee rolled into a canal near Balad, and an Air Force staff sergeant drowned trying to rescue them.
Five soldiers were killed when their Bradley rolled over Jan. 24. Another was killed Nov. 28 when his 5-ton truck rolled and pinned him underwater.
Two weeks before the 3rd Brigade’s first accident in 2003, a 4th Infantry Division soldier drowned when his Humvee slid off the road into a canal near Balad.
“There have been far too many soldiers across the Army who have died in the canals,” said Col. Mike Rounds, who commanded the 3rd Brigade in Iraq.
The additional weight of slat armor that was installed to protect the Strykers from rocket-propelled grenades does not make the vehicles more likely to roll, officials said.
The 3rd Brigade’s investigation of the Dec. 8 accident made no finding as to whether the added weight of the improvised armor played a part in the tragedy.
It concluded that the vehicles rolled mostly because the drivers failed to steer them clear of the weakened left side of the dirt track that ran between two canals, and that they fell when a portion of the road collapsed underneath them.
Rounds, in an interview following the brigade’s return home in October, said in retrospect that there was no tactical advantage to be gained by traveling down the trail between the canals that day.
“In my view it was less about the Strykers,” he said, “and more about us not dominating our surroundings, letting our surroundings get away from us.”
Michael Gilbert: 253-597-8921
If it wasn't for that damned bird-cage the thing wouldn't roll as much. They get so top-heavy with all that extra armour, you'll if you run over anything larger than a dog.