A Duty of Care
Three men died of hyperthermia, the effects of overheating, in July 2013 during an SAS selection march. Cpl Dunsby and L/Cpls Maher and Roberts collapsed on one of the hottest days of the year. The coroner reached a conclusion of neglect today as reported by the BBC.
This is disgraceful. There is a clear duty of care that should have been provided but wasn’t. To get the best recruits the challenge needs to be supremely difficult, everyone understands that. However the aspirants need to be adequately protected, not only from the risks of the task, but also from themselves. While to have zero risks is impossible and would lower the level of the challenge unacceptably, the Directing Staff (DS) must do the best they can to account for them. It is clear from the coroner’s report just how negligent the DS were, with insufficient attention paid to the soldiers’ GPS trackers, inadequate hydration provided and poor liaison with emergency services, among other problems.
To apply for these roles successfully requires a high level of physical strength and fitness, but also a high level of mental and emotional strength. However that mental and emotional strength can often lead to an all-consuming unwillingness to withdraw, give up or to accept that the aspirant cannot actually complete the task. They will not let themselves fail, and will fight to complete it until they can’t anymore.
Indeed, in the cases of L/Cpls Roberts and Maher, this was the second time they had attempted SAS selection. What is not made clear in the BBC article is that an aspirant gets two attempts before they are unable to apply again. This was the last opportunity for these soldiers, and that means they would have pushed themselves until they couldn’t anymore. Here it led to their distress and eventual collapse, lying alone for up to 90 minutes before help arrived, while families were misled. One of the other members of the march had to resort to pleading with civilian hill-walkers they happened to come across to spare any water for their sick comrade. What a waste of good soldiers.
While these hugely difficult trials lead to some of the strongest recruits for these roles, unless the aspirants are adequately protected from themselves and with a clear and complete risk assessment that can account for as many eventualities as possible; Unless their physical and mental condition are closely monitored by DS and unless those DS have the training and understanding to decide when enough is enough, it can lead to situations like this. Hopefully this verdict of neglect can lead to some serious improvements, as soldiers are likely among the worst people to say when enough is enough.
Originally published at www.dcxiii.com.
