Army Unimogs.

[Swoop]

There have been quite a few incidents over the years involving the NZ Army's Unimog all-terrain vehicles.
There have been many fatal crashes since 1994.

The Harold article summarises it:
Dangerous manoeuvres

Army Mercedes-Benz Unimog trucks have been involved in at least seven fatal incidents in the past decade, and several others involving injury:

* Yesterday - One person dies and another is injured after Unimog crashes in convoy near Blenheim.

* February 7, 2006 - Unimog and a truck collide on State Highway One near Hunterville, killing truck driver Shane Ratahi, 44. Unimog driver and two other soldiers are injured.

* September 20, 2005 - Review of Army driver training finds most accidents in military vehicles are caused by errors made by drivers under the age of 25 and suggests additional training and supervision.

* June 21, 2005 - Unimog driven by trainee driver tips over and gets stuck on the Port Hills near Christchurch. No one injured.

* February 23, 2005 - Unimog plunges into the Kawarau River near Queenstown, killing Privates David Partington, 17, Ashley Goodwin, 19, and Shane Ohlen, 21.

*August 20, 2004 - Unimog rolls near Ahaura, near Greymouth.

* August 11, 2004 - Unimog rolls 400m on Banks Peninsula killing Privates Sean James Dougherty, 29, and Daniel Kairua, 22. A third soldier is badly injured.

* April 25, 2000 - Unimog leaves the road and rolls down a bluff near Lolotoe, East Timor, killing Staff Sergeant William White and injuring three others.

* November 30, 1999 - New Zealand military force suffers its first fatality in East Timor when Warrant Officer Tony Michael Walser, 37, is killed carting gravel from a quarry in the Suai region.

* March 18, 1999 - An 18-year-old Waiouru-based soldier is injured after falling from a Unimog while on an exercise.

* July 25, 1998 - One woman dies and another person is critically injured when a car crashes into the back of a moving Army Unimog.

* February 12, 1997 - Thirteen of 17 soldiers in an Army Unimog are injured when it careers off the road.

- NZPA.

Now this is quite a tragic occurence on an individual basis, let alone a fairly regular event.
First: A Unimog would not be able to do tremendously fast speeds. Sitting on 100kmh would be top end (possibly).
Second: Many of these accidents occured on areas of road where they would be a very slow speeds (The Queenstown accident is a prime example).

"Speed kills", the motto we all know so well, is completely irrelevant in most of these Unimog accidents.
The skills of ALL drivers throughout NZ (car, motorbike, truck, bus, etc, etc) are the main factor of concern, not only in these accidents but in future ones as well. Driving to the conditions prevalent at the time is also important.

Speed kills?

[sAsLEX]

I have been in them a bit and the top speed we got to via GPS on one run was 86kmhr!

Some of those injuries involving them are just stupid. Someone drove in to the back of one.... well duh driving into the back of any truck is going to smart. And jumping out of the things is always likely to cause injury, hence the steps....

[dnos]

A mate from uni had one of those - it was awesome.
Funniest thing was he managed to get it stuck
But your right - there isn't a hell of a lot of top end on them so they can only just go over the speed limit. This would make you immediately think that there musta been some other factor.

[Motu]

Does anyone have accident records of the RL Bedfords - drivers of the same age,experiance and training,and the roads wouldn't be as in as good condition as they are these days.My RL was in mph of course,but it could stay at 50 or 60mph all day....if you could feed it enough fuel.I've seen the RL's in some crazy condition,like transversing slopes you walked up using your hands.Maybe the old Beddy was better than the Unimog?

[Skyryder]

Drivings got worse everwhere. Why should the Army be exempt??


Skyryder

[McJim]

Almost all of the incidents seem to have a slope involved of some desciption. Maybe the Unimogs (sounds like a well educated cat doesn't it) were designed by the Dutch division of Merc-benz for use on the flat only.

So long as they stick to the flat the worst that happens is a slow speed shunt.

Is it possible the width of the vehicle is unsuitable for the terrain? It may be POSSIBLE to drive them along narrow mountain roads but it may not be EASY to drive them in these environments.

[Motig]

The drivers are mostly young, perhaps they still think their driving their boy racer cars. Driving beyond their commonsense and abilities as well. PS and X Box drivers never get killed. Any other theories?

[Pixie]

Funny enough, the unimogs have a cab voice recorder.The last words heard in all the most recent accidents has been " aarrgh,where's the reset?"

[awesker]

Ive got a friend in the army, and from what he tells me.. they dont always drive legally, I dont really wanna say to much but they do do some stupid shit on really dodgey roads..

[Sniper]

Nothing wrong with the mogs. I never had a problem with them and when you think of how many are on NZ roads and how many kms a year they travel, the amount of accidents are minimal.

The only reason they get more coverage is because they are distinct vehicles.

I still prefer the jeeps though

[smokeyging]

In my experience truck drivers today are not as good as they were 30 years ago.
As for the unimogs, they would be a little top heavy, but my guess is inexperience and showing off etc.

[Timber020]

They are short of good drivers, they used to team young drivers with older guys that had a fair bit of experience under their belt. Now they dont have enough guys for that to keep these 19 year olds that have been at the wheel for SFA stacking these mogs.

The just dont have the experience or guidance so they screw up.

[Hoon]

Nothing wrong with the mogs.

Yep I agree. I drive these regularly and have been through the same training I can honestly say that mogs are great vehicles especially off road. They still get stuck in mud/sand just like any off-road vehicle can but I swear you could drive one up a cliff if the tyres were sticky enough.
Top speed is about 95-100kph from a good one and as low as 80-85kph from a tired one (what you'd expect from any fleet of 20 yo vehicles).

I can't even fault the training.

I personally think the problem is to do with driver age being in that 16-25yo danger area which affect drivers everywhere not just the Army. That age group is more likely to become distracted, lack experience, take unecessary risks, bad decision making, overate your own driving skills etc.

But why had this gotten worse lately?? Not sure, could be coincidence but I blame the influx of cheap performance jap imports and the boy racer scene which inflates egos of the youth of today and makes them all think they are race car drivers and invulnerable.

Solution? Like the report says, improved training to cater to this change in driver habits and stamp it out.

[Quasievil]

Well moon beams ago when I was in the Army we had the RL bedfords bloody excellent truck, the unimogs were just coming into service, I did my training courses on them at linton and thought they where brilliant, I had no problems at all. Both good trucks as far as Im concerned.
I wonder if its the calibre of the new recruit thinking they are drifters?

use them how and for what they where intended for and you shouldnt have a problem operate outside that......problem

[Kyle]

The Unimogs themselves are rated exceptional by euro standards but if you bump into a one foot concrete barrier (like many gorge barriers in nz) in a truck with four foot offroad tires, its easy to see why they they leave the road. One of my friends borrowed my old HQ holden once and discovered that if you clip the curb, while not really hanging onto the steering wheel, it actully pulls the wheel in and over the curb. needless to say i was shocked to find my HQ parked nearly vertically down a bank. I think lady luck was not just smiling at him that day, she was laughing her head off because he missed a large tree on either side, managed to leave the car there all day while he went to work and after jacking the front a little it rolled free and we drove it home fairly undamaged, ontop of all that he didnt even get reported to the cops at all.