thedrifter
02-10-07, 06:56 PM
One dead, 19 injured in truck accident at Miramar
By Tanya Sierra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
1:32 p.m. February 10, 2007
MIRAMAR – A middle-of-the-night training exercise Saturday killed one Marine and injured 19 others when their 7-ton truck flipped over on the east end of Miramar air base.
The truck was part of a six-truck convoy operating in low light on an unimproved dirt road, and the Marines were doing regularly scheduled training, said Maj. Todd Sudmeyer, spokesman for the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
They are with the 4th Tank Battalion, a reservist unit that was practicing general war fighting skills after 3 a.m., Sudmeyer said.
The injured were taken to local hospitals, and no information was being released about their conditions. The identity of the Marine who died also was not released so his family could be notified first.
The group was not scheduled to be deployed to Iraq, but some of the Marines in the unit have served in Iraq, Sudmeyer said.
The training has been suspended while authorities investigate the cause of the accident, he said.
This is the 27th training-related military death since 2004 at military installations in San Diego County. Last month, a Navy Seahawk helicopter crashed in the ocean 50 miles off Camp Pendleton, killing all four sailors on board. A search was called off for three of the sailors who had not been found after a day of searching.
Other deaths since 2004 include eight at Camp Pendleton, 10 at Miramar, four at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and one at the Coronado Naval Base.
Tanya Sierra: (619) 498-6631; tanya.sierra@uniontrib.com
Ellie
By Tanya Sierra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
1:32 p.m. February 10, 2007
MIRAMAR – A middle-of-the-night training exercise Saturday killed one Marine and injured 19 others when their 7-ton truck flipped over on the east end of Miramar air base.
The truck was part of a six-truck convoy operating in low light on an unimproved dirt road, and the Marines were doing regularly scheduled training, said Maj. Todd Sudmeyer, spokesman for the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
They are with the 4th Tank Battalion, a reservist unit that was practicing general war fighting skills after 3 a.m., Sudmeyer said.
The injured were taken to local hospitals, and no information was being released about their conditions. The identity of the Marine who died also was not released so his family could be notified first.
The group was not scheduled to be deployed to Iraq, but some of the Marines in the unit have served in Iraq, Sudmeyer said.
The training has been suspended while authorities investigate the cause of the accident, he said.
This is the 27th training-related military death since 2004 at military installations in San Diego County. Last month, a Navy Seahawk helicopter crashed in the ocean 50 miles off Camp Pendleton, killing all four sailors on board. A search was called off for three of the sailors who had not been found after a day of searching.
Other deaths since 2004 include eight at Camp Pendleton, 10 at Miramar, four at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and one at the Coronado Naval Base.
Tanya Sierra: (619) 498-6631; tanya.sierra@uniontrib.com
Ellie