British officer died under the wheels of a Warrior armoured vehicle with a faulty alarm — coroner's inquest

Circumstances of the death

The Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner's Court is examining the death of 26-year-old Second Lieutenant Max George from Durham, who died at the scene during an exercise on the Salisbury Plain training area in Wiltshire on 21 June 2022. As Colonel Graham Watson, who led the service inquiry into the incident, told the court, the officer was struck by a Warrior armoured vehicle reversing as he was getting out of it. It was reported that the built-in alarm, which was supposed to warn the driver with a sound and a light that the rear doors were open, was not working: a wire was broken, and the fault had persisted since 2018.

The course of the exercise and the inquiry's account

According to the inquiry, soldiers of the 5th Battalion, The Rifles (5 Rifles) got up at 05:00 on the day of the incident and left barracks at 07:00. The Combat Spirit exercise was the final part of a four-course infantry armour training programme. Two groups of soldiers were converging on objectives, and George was ordered to leave the vehicle through the rear door to take command on the ground. Colonel Watson said the lieutenant paused for a moment — possibly because of his day pack or a radio antenna catching — and reached for his weapon, which had been left inside the vehicle, at the same moment the trainee commander ordered the driver to reverse. George's exit made a 'dull thud', which led the commander to believe he had already left the vehicle and closed the doors. After the collision, the vehicle remained stationary for 38–43 seconds while soldiers shouted 'stop' and gave signals; the 'stop' command was transmitted at 10:25, and the exercise was halted. Watson stated that had the alarm been working, the driver 'would almost certainly have stopped'. He also noted that the alarm was fitted to the Warrior after two fatal incidents in the 1990s, that a number of known faults with these vehicles were documented, but that, in his words, they did not mean the vehicle should have been withdrawn from service.

Features of the model and tributes to the officer

The court heard that the FV-511 variant involved was not normally used for dismounting troops and close combat: the trainee commander had completed his basic training on the FV-510 variant, and 5 Rifles personnel in general were not well acquainted with the FV511 and its differences. The mother of the deceased, Vivien George, read a portrait of her son to the court: she described him as 'modest and great fun', and spoke of his quiet charity work — the Great North Run and fundraising for the Royal British Legion. George received the Queen's Medal for the best cadet on commissioning from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, attended Durham School, earned a first-class degree in politics with Russian at Newcastle University, and a master's degree with distinction in East European and Eurasian studies with Russian at the University of Glasgow. 'Max's loss has left a hole in our lives,'},{ he was the best of all of us,' said his mother. The inquest continues.'},{

Why it matters

The case concerns not only the family of the deceased: according to the inquiry, the fault in the alarm system, designed to prevent precisely such fatalities after the incidents of the 1990s, went unnoticed for more than four years. The outcome of the coroner's inquest could affect the operating and maintenance procedures for British Army armoured vehicles, and for service personnel and their families the verdict will establish the official account of the causes of death during a routine exercise. While the inquest continues, it is premature to draw final conclusions about systemic failures.

Image source, MOD