Phillip Hoole announced the move after an inquest into the death of his son, Corporal Joshua Hoole, found “very serious” training and planning failings at every level, surrounding the exercise on a hot day in July 2016. Concluding the inquest yesterday, senior Birmingham coroner Louise Hunt told the Army she had “grave concerns” about its “ability to learn from previous mistakes”, after similar failings were identified following an SAS selection march in 2013. Cpl Hoole, of the infantry regiment 1 Rifles, was described as “fit, capable and determined”.

He died within an hour of collapsing near the end of an annual fitness test (AFT) at Brecon in Wales on July 19, 2016. Reacting to the inquest’s narrative conclusion, Mr Hoole said: “I intend to take out a civil action against the MoD for corporate manslaughter.”

The death of Cpl Hoole, 26, from Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, came three years after three Army reservists suffered fatal heat illness during an SAS selection march in the Brecon Beacons. 

The inquest heard that soldiers were aware it was to be “the hottest day of the year” and the march time was brought forward as a result. Of 41 soldiers taking part, 18 dropped out, collapsed or were withdrawn – a rate of 42 per cent.

Rules governing the AFT meant the exercise should have been stopped once heat illness was suspected and had they done so, the coroner found Cpl Hoole would have lived. Ms Hunt identified failings, including “confusion” about who was in charge.

The exercise staff were “unfamiliar” with health and safety and risk assessment rules. Captain Colin Nufer, in charge of the course, told the inquest he took a “common sense” approach to health and safety.

At a 2015 inquest into the SAS selection march deaths, Ms Hunt concluded there had been a lack of awareness about key health and safety documents, including one called JSP 539.

Highlighting the Army’s “continuing” failure in that field, she said: “There was a very serious failure on the part of the Army to ensure the Rifles’ training team were familiar with improvements in JSP 539 and how they applied to the AFT. 

“There was a report to prevent future deaths issued in July 2015 following inquests which specifically raised concerns about lack of awareness of JSP 539.

“The failure of the Army to learn from previous mistakes is a very concerning matter for me.”

Relatives of those reservists who died on the SAS selection march were also in court. 

Announcing that she’d be sending a report to prevent future deaths to the Defence Secretary, Ms Hunt said: “It leaves me very worried about the Army’s ability to learn from previous mistakes. 

“It is a matter of grave concern for me that I’m raising the same concerns. Quite simply, it has to change.” Ms Hunt concluded that the AFT should “not have taken place” in such heat. There had been a “very serious failure” to check a key temperature gauge before the march – and in any case it was giving “erroneous” readings.

Heat experts later calculated the temperature had already reached the limit of safe operation at 6.45am, before the march started.

Ms Hunt said: “Had the AFT not gone ahead or been stopped any time before 8.28am, before Josh’s collapse, on balance he would not have died when he did.”

However, she added that Cpl Hoole had an “underlying vulnerability, not previously identified, to a sudden cardiac event”.  Afterwards, Bryher Dunsby, the widow of Cpl James Dunsby, who died on the SAS selection march, said the attitude to training and heat illness needed to change.

She said: “More of our service personnel will die in training if it is not addressed.”

Brigadier Christopher Coles, head of the Army’s personnel services, said: “The MoD has acknowledged that aspects of the policy which governed the training Cpl Hoole was undertaking could have been better, and was in areas inconsistent. 

“While much work has already been done to address this, we will seek to ensure that it is refined and improved to help ensure a tragedy like Cpl Hoole’s death is not repeated.”

Source: Read Full Article