Artillery gun comes loose and hits taxi in Nanaimo

[Colin Parkinson]

for the want of a pin.....


A cab driver was not injured after an artillery gun struck his vehicle in Nanaimo. Witnesses report that the gun came loose from a Canadian military vehicle leaving Maffeo Sutton Park around 2 p.m. Saturday and rolled down a hill and hit an AC Taxi cab on the corner of Comox Road and Terminal Avenue.

https://www.cheknews.ca/artillery-gun-comes-loose-and-hits-taxi-in-nanaimo-472113/

 

[medicineman]

A dude in Victoria was knocked off the Pat Bay Highway by a 105 in April 88 when we were going to the ferry to go to Ft Lewis...he was tailgating, vehicle in front of the gun tractor slammed on the brakes, gun tractor locked up and the gun flipped.  He blamed the driver he was tailgating in the Times-CommunistColumnist...funny look on his face with the CO, a Vic PD copper reminded him of the tailgating laws and who was really at fault  ;D

MM

spelling oopie

 

[Petard]

for the want of a pin.....

..or safety chains hooked up (that are proper weight class chains and D rings)

 

[FJAG]

..or safety chains hooked up (that are proper weight class chains and D rings)

When you look closely at the second picture showing the gun from the back, you can see some form of safety chain connected to the spades and what looks like the taillight cable hanging down. Makes me wonder even more what happened here.

:cheers:

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Makes me wonder even more what happened here.

:cheers:

Section 666 of the NDA:  "In that he was stupid..."

 

[Petard]

Safety chains only work if you connect them to truck too; from some photos on other news sites it doesn't look like they were

Doesn't help either there are a lot of gun Dets using chains and D rings that are too light for that weight of gun; might've been a factor in this case too

At any rate, someone's got some serious 'splainin' to do

 

[daftandbarmy]

Typical 105mm ... always playing hard to get  :

 

[brihard]

I hate it when that happens.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

And most D-Rings or shackles people put on the MSVS are in the wrong spot for towing...

 

[Cloud Cover]

What does the sign on the gun tractor say? Recruiting for Army Reserve? 

 

[dapaterson]

Either that or an ad for a body shop...

 

[FJAG]

What does the sign on the gun tractor say? Recruiting for Army Reserve?

Bit hard to read but it looks like "Official, S something?, G something?, presented? by 5 (BC) Field Regiment Royal Canadian Artillery Army Reserve"

:dunno:

...

I wouldn't call it "cheap". That's going to cost a few bucks.

:cheers:

 

[Colin Parkinson]

As long as the gun suffers no real damage, the taxi will be easily repaired or replaced.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Expect to see a news article 'DND Spending Out of Control' as a result!  :rofl:

 

[Petard]

There's a bit of a debate going on social media as to who would be responsible for this run away. Some are saying the driver, IAW the highway traffic act, others say the Detachment Commander (No 1), IAW the drill book

FJAG, jump in here if you can

 

[YZT580]

Doesn't seem to say anything about attaching safety chains.  Am I reading it wrong?

 

[Gunner98]

IMHO "satisfies himself that the equipment is ready to travel" - pretty much covers it!  #1 circles the gun and vehicle before mounting.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

There's a bit of a debate going on social media as to who would be responsible for this run away. Some are saying the driver, IAW the highway traffic act, others say the Detachment Commander (No 1), IAW the drill book

FJAG, jump in here if you can

As this was a recruitment drive, there may be no Detachment Commander in the sense it is used in gun drill. Likely the Officer and/or NCO in charge for that day will be in trouble for not properly supervising the hookup (generally 4 people to lift trails). Plus the driver. This is assuming something went wrong and not something broke. If there was the remains of a cotter pin in the pintle hook and it had been in the closed position, then unlikely anyone's fault. In which case a fleet wide order may come down to repair/replace suspect components.

 

[FJAG]

As this was a recruitment drive, there may be no Detachment Commander in the sense it is used in gun drill. Likely the Officer and/or NCO in charge for that day will be in trouble for not properly supervising the hookup (generally 4 people to lift trails). Plus the driver. This is assuming something went wrong and not something broke. If there was the remains of a cotter pin in the pintle hook and it had been in the closed position, then unlikely anyone's fault. In which case a fleet wide order may come down to repair/replace suspect components.

That was my thought. The gun drill is written for when a detachment is doing training or in operations etc and, yes, as a Number 1 I always quickly walked around the gun and always checked the pintle, the pin, the latch on the panoramic scope box and the hand breaks [which are the responsibilities of the Nos 2 and 3] to make sure the gun was ready to travel (safety chains are not part of ordinary gun movements - just long administrative road moves and the like) Incidentally when working as a detachment, the driver does not leave the cab of the vehicle while going either into or coming out of action. He stays in the cab ready to move the vehicle as directed by the No 1 and in fact in coming out of action he backs the vehicle into the gun which is when the Nos 6 and 7 [one on each side of the trails nearest the pintle] cooperate to lock the gun into the pintle and pin it [at the split second that the truck stops] and then mount.

It may have been here that there was no real detachment involved which should mean that whoever was lifting the trails into the pintle should have locked and pinned it and whoever was in charge of the group involved in hooking up the gun should have checked that it was properly locked in and brakes released.

I don't suspect a mechanical problem with the pintle or pin. We've used those for a half a century now and they are very simple and robust parts and take a lot more punishment in the field then they would ever get on a paved road. I still wonder about those chains though. I'd love to see a close up photo of both the pintle and the spades/chains.

:cheers:

 

[Old Sweat]

Maybe I am showing my age, but I always thought the pintle was used as the point of contact to anchor the top carriage to the borrow carriage, and then was the pivot point for traversing. Perhaps more relevant, the handspike appears to be missing from its place on the left trail, which suggests this was a non-operational or administrative move, taking the gun from point A to point B by a non-qualified group.