• IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here.

    The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.

Serious Driver NSF's fault, not Bionix! Govt never to blame!

steffychun

Alfrescian
Loyal
Joined
Aug 19, 2008
Messages
38,233
Points
113
https://www.todayonline.com/singapo...r-did-not-hear-repeated-orders-stop-reversing

SINGAPORE — Despite repeated orders from a specialist to stop reversing, the driver of a Bionix armoured vehicle continued to do so.

The vehicle later mounted a Land Rover metres behind it — killing its driver, full-time national serviceman Liu Kai.


Releasing these findings by an independent Committee of Inquiry (COI) looking into Liu’s death, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen told Parliament on Monday (Feb 11) that the committee had found no mechanical problem with the Bionix’s steering equipment.

The 22-year-old transport operator from the Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF) Transport Hub West died on Nov 3 of traumatic asphyxia, shortly after the accident during a mission exercise at Jalan Murai, near Lim Chu Kang. Traumatic asphyxia refers to an injury that causes an interruption of breathing.

Police investigations into the accident are continuing, following which the Attorney-General’s Chambers will decide if anyone should be prosecuted, Dr Ng said.

Even if the Attorney-General does not bring criminal charges, the Defence Ministry will carry out its own investigations and may charge those who have breached military law in the military court, he added.

WHAT HAPPENED

The COI stitched together a detailed chronology of the events that morning via the Land Rover’s cameras that recorded events in front of and inside the vehicle, as well as statements from witnesses.

Walking Members of Parliament through the sequence of events, Dr Ng said Liu was assigned to drive a trainer — an SAF regular who was a captain. The trainer from the Active Unit Training Centre was evaluating the exercise troops from the Land Rover, which was following its assigned Bionix as part of the exercise.

Four full-time national servicemen were in the Bionix: A vehicle commander (a Second Lieutenant); a rear guide who guides the vehicle in reversing (a Third Sergeant); as well as a driver and a gunner (both Corporals). The driver has no sight of what goes on behind, and hence, requires the rear guide’s directions.


  • At 9.58am, about three hours after the exercise began, the Bionix crew noticed several vehicles passing at a junction ahead of it and stopped on their commander’s orders. Responding to this, Liu also halted the Land Rover.

  • The trainer in the Land Rover later instructed Liu to overtake the Bionix, but as Liu began advancing slowly, shots were fired as part of the exercise. He stopped the vehicle on hearing the gunshots.

  • Based on the COI’s calculations, the Land Rover was, at most, 19.8m from the Bionix, less than the safe distance of 30m set out in training safety regulations.

  • Four seconds after Liu’s vehicle came to a halt, the Bionix carried out an “extrication drill” in response to the gunshots on orders from its commander, and began to reverse, said Dr Ng.

  • An extrication drill is a standard action for the Bionix crew to get away from an enemy encounter as quickly as possible.

  • While the Land Rover was not in the Bionix’s reverse path initially, the Bionix operator steered slightly to straighten its course, the COI found. This brought it into the path of Liu’s vehicle.

  • Almost immediately after the armoured vehicle started reversing, the rear guide was seen gesturing at Liu’s vehicle to move away. He also brought the mic of his helmet closer to his mouth.

  • He issued stop commands into his helmet set repeatedly — the intercom device via the helmet is the Bionix rear guide’s only means of communicating with other crew members on board.

  • But the Bionix continued to reverse.

The intercom system had been working earlier, noted the COI, which has asked for an independent technical assessment report on whether the system was functioning throughout. It is not clear if the equipment had later failed.

Inside the Land Rover, the trainer tapped and signalled to Liu to reverse, based on video footage. Beep sounds indicated that Liu had engaged the reverse gear, said Dr Ng, though he did not mention if Liu managed to reverse at all.

The trainer and Liu shouted and gestured with their hands for the Bionix to stop, and the trainer also reached for a handset to talk to the crew on board the Bionix, added Dr Ng. The minister did not disclose if the trainer managed to establish contact.

Eight seconds or so after it began reversing, the Bionix mounted the driver’s side of the Land Rover before coming to a halt.

The trainer extricated himself, though Liu remained trapped.

A medic aboard a nearby Bionix attended to Liu, as did the SAF Emergency Ambulance Service, a unit medical officer, and the Singapore Civil Defence Force. Liu succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene at 10.35am.

ADEQUATE MEDICAL RESPONSE

Dr Ng said the COI determined that a safety-management plan had been included as part of exercise support, in accordance with standard practice. There was also adequate deployment of medics and medical equipment.

Still, the COI noted that poor communication signals in the training area hampered the execution of the post-incident safety-management plan, which led to delays in contacting the chief safety officer and co-ordination difficulties with some responders.

It also found that the SAF’s medical response was based on the concept of rapid evacuation to the next level of care, but this may not be adequate when a casualty cannot be evacuated promptly, as in Liu’s case. The transport operators supporting the exercise — who were assigned only shortly before the exercise — also did not take part in the exercise brief and instead received separate briefs by their vehicle commanders.

In the aftermath of the accident, the SAF has and will put in place measures to prevent a recurrence, the minister said. These include having emergency-horn activation buttons in the rear crew compartment of all Bionix vehicles in its training fleet as well as rear-view cameras to aid Bionix drivers during reversing.

Calling Liu a well-liked and respected soldier who served with pride, Dr Ng said the young man was remembered by his peers for his dedication.

“We mourn the loss of this precious son and we hope that the measures we have put in place will prevent a similar incident in the future.”

Liu, a Private who was posthumously accorded the rank of Corporal First Class, was the youngest and only son in a family of five.

***

PAP and SAF: We are not to blame! @JohnTan saying Heng ah!
 
Took so long to write a story! All SAF armoured vehicles should be auto-piloted to prevent recurrence!
 
Took so long to write a story! All SAF armoured vehicles should be auto-piloted to prevent recurrence!

Normal cars have rear view mirrors and drivers can turn head back why not this expensive Bionix?
 
The government cannot take over individual responsibility.

For example you're crossing the road when the green man is in your favor and some idiot jumps the lights and runs you down. You can't blame the government for issuing him with a driving license. The driver is personally responsible for failing to stop at a red light.
 
The government cannot take over individual responsibility.

For example you're crossing the road when the green man is in your favor and some idiot jumps the lights and runs you down. You can't blame the government for issuing him with a driving license. The driver is personally responsible for failing to stop at a red light.
You can’t blame the Govt if a regular, licensed driver runs down a pedestrian. But I don’t think anyone operating a Bionix has that level of competency, not unless his family maid is around to assist. You drive a car Everyday but not a Bionix. SAF training is child’s play anyway why not use auto-pilot.
 
xtemujin (HWZ) said:
Death of NSF Liu Kai: Bionix driver continued reversing despite stop commands, police investigating comms between crew

picture-of-bionix.jpg


Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...x-driver-continued-reversing-despite-11229302

Ng Eng Hen says autopsy cause of death was traumatic asphyxia.

Asphyxia is defined as asphyxia
noun
a condition arising when the body is deprived of oxygen, causing unconsciousness or death; suffocation.
Or https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphyxia

But photo shows the Bionix still sitting atop on the land Rover when the SCDF ambulance arrived.

Does this mean that CPL Liew could have survived if whoever the SAF officer on site in charge at time of accident had ordered the Bionix to drive forward and stop pressing on CPL Liew body so that he could again breathe etc, either alone or with medic assistance etc (be resuscitated in situ rather than go through initial investigation formalities and some other more complicated extraction procedure than by driving Bionix forwards; by which time CPL Liew would be already long suffocated and thus dead).

Was the on site officer in control stun like vegetable resulting in CPL Liew death?

Why didn't anyone consider asking bionix driver to drive the vehicle forwards and maybe CPL Liew life might have been saved since obviously according to autopsy, it was death by suffocation and not brain become pancake etc.

Better investigation needs to be done than just miscommunication between Bionix rear guide and driver.

Maybe SAF officers also have deep seated cultural problems and every service man in SAF lacks common sense / initiative to try to save a person's life when he is suffocating to death, rather than get stun like vegetables and await orders from scholars above, by which time the casualty would already be dead.

Just wondering.
 
why is it always fatalities fallen on the lower ranks among the higher ranks when they were all present at all the accident scenes?
izit becoz the higher ranks, officers or supervisors look after themselves more than serving their ranks or the lower ones fallen victim under their command & control?
likewise, all the similarity reoccurs when it comes to investigations, where the lower among the ranks will bear with the penalty more than the others!

all these have become the norm for this country where our gahmen's prioritizes benefits from top to bottom.
forget about those patriotic preaches coming from these leaders where their only preach is "Me Above The Rest".....

sigh....
 
why is it always fatalities fallen on the lower ranks among the higher ranks when they were all present at all the accident scenes?
izit becoz the higher ranks, officers or supervisors look after themselves more than serving their ranks or the lower ones fallen victim under their command & control?
likewise, all the similarity reoccurs when it comes to investigations, where the lower among the ranks will bear with the penalty more than the others!

all these have become the norm for this country where our gahmen's prioritizes benefits from top to bottom.
forget about those patriotic preaches coming from these leaders where their only preach is "Me Above The Rest".....

sigh....

Have you served NS before? In combat vocations, it's those low-rank grunts who do the dirty work, who have a greater risk of becoming a casualty.
 
Now you push the responsibility of the whole matter to a poor NSF.
 
They will not blame themselves but whether the public and esp the voters blame them is the issue.
You can clear your name in Parliament but not in the court of public opinion
 
Cut and paste from another site.

This piece of shit COI is dripping with so much wayang that I want to throw up. Did the COI ask the question "In the 50 years of the SAF operating tracked AFV and tanks, how many of these reversal accidents have happened resulting in fatality?" The answer is less then 5. Maybe less then 2. This is the first one that I have personally heard of in literally decades. I have ordered reverse on my tank hundreds if not thousands of time. So has very other AFV and tank vehicle commander. Without any incidents at all. The SAF can save millions and millions of $ by NOT installing these cameras, as they are a waste of time and money. Notice the 2 people involved in the accident i.e. Liu Kai (From Transport Hub West) and his Land Rover commander a Regular Trainer Capt rank from the Active Unit Training Centre, are not from Armour Formation. This is the issue. In the old days before they centralized all the transport MT Lines into Hubs, this Land Rover and its driver would have been indented and supplied from 42 SAR, which would have its own MT Line. Being from an armour unit, the drivers are all aware of the power and danger of the AFVs and know the safety distance and how to be drive around these vehicles. Liu Kai obviously did not know this, and neither did his VC. Blind lead blind in an area filled with AFVs is a recipe for disaster. In the old days, when I drove the safety vehicle behind the tanks, I put it into reverse gear when I stopped, which is also when the tanks stopped, so I can get the hell out in a hurry if needed. I am sure other drivers did the same thing. This should have been the procedure to be implemented on all soft skin vehicles. When AFV stops, you stop, and put vehicle into reverse gear or at least neutral, so u can reverse in a hurry. Now as to why the cameras should not be installed. They should not be installed, as its just another piece of equipment that can fail in the field. The cameras will be exposed on the vehicle, and anything can happen to them. If they fail, and they will, a driver who was brought up training using predominantly the camera is going to be a lot less comfortable doing it the old fashion way. And that is another accident waiting to happen. The real question the COI should be asking is who was the genius that centralized the MT Lines into the hubs in the name of cost savings. And how can you re-introduce soft skin vehicles into the SARs for these sort of training purposes.
 
Back
Top