Three Boston people airlifted to hospital after 4 Army trucks collide with tractor-trailer

[kscarbel2]

The Daily Mail  /  May 19, 2016

Three people have been seriously injured and two others left needing hospital treatment after four Army vehicles driving in convoy crashed into each other and an articulated lorry.

Four men and a woman were all injured in the horror crash which occurred on the A17 near Swineshead Bridge in Boston, Lincolnshire, just before midday today.

Police said four military Rheinmetall-MAN HX-Series 4x4 tactical trucks were driving in convoy when they crashed into each other.

A tractor-trailer travelling behind them also went into the back of the last truck and jack-knifed into the other vehicles.

Rescue crews, including four air ambulances, four fire engines and four police cars, were all scrambled to reports of a 'huge collision', while witnesses said it sounded 'like a bomb going off'.

Fire crews spent two hours cutting the drivers of the trucks and the HGV out of the wreckage.

Three men were airlifted to hospital - two to the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC), in Nottingham, and one to Addenbrooke's, in Cambridge - and a woman was taken to QMC by land ambulance. One other person was also injured in the collision.

A worker from the nearby Adrian Padley Motors, who witnessed the crash, there was an 'there was an almighty bang and the sound of screeching metal'.

He added: 'The four Army trucks all went into each other and a lorry travelling behind them smashed into the last one and spun round to hit the others. 

'It is a miracle anyone came out of it alive. I don't know why the front truck suddenly stopped but it was a huge collision.

'It was lucky the road wasn't very busy. All four drivers of the Army trucks and the lorry driver were cut out of the cabs which had been virtually flattened.'

Luke Spencer, who works nearby, said: 'We heard it. It was a screech, a bang and then loads of screams.

'It was like a bomb going off.'

Police closed the road in both directions while the drivers were rescued and the road cleared of debris.

A spokesman for Lincolnshire Police said: 'The RTC happened shortly before noon and involves four trucks. Each of the drivers has been injured.

'Three men have been airlifted to hospital - two to the Queens Medical Centre, in Nottingham, and one to Addenbrookes, in Cambridge - and a woman has been taken to QMC by land ambulance.

'The road has been closed at Bicker Bar roundabout and at the junction with the Boardsides turnoff. Diversions are in place.'

Armed services spokesman Squadron Leader Martin Tinworth said: 'It's Army units. It's some personnel that have been injured.'

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue said there were 32 firefighters at the scene.

Photo gallery - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3599441/Four-people-airlifted-hospital-four-Army-trucks-collide-HGV-horror-crash.html

 

[mrsmackpaul]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ??????? must not have been able to see the big trucks with the camouflage

 

Paul 

[kscarbel2]

Without admitting to it, truck operators (military and civilian) want to spec automatic transmissions so that they can put virtually anyone behind the wheel due to a shrinking professional truck driver base (rather than confront the reasons for that dilemma and address them).

But that's not what automatic transmissions (e.g. AMT) were intended to do. They were designed to compliment the skills of a proper, experienced truck driver.

The trend of putting light vehicle (e.g. cars) drivers in trucks via the automatic transmission is a recipe for trouble.....as we see here.

In any regard, the MOD lost face today with the trashing of four very expensive German trucks.

Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/45224-shifting-away-from-manual-transmissions/

 

[Mike]

Sounds like a CLUSTER to me.