Safety Lapse - MINDEF
 

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will set up an Inspector-General's Office*to ensure that "command emphasis on safety" is applied and enforced across all SAF units, said the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) in a news release on Thursday (Jan 31).

The office will support the Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General (LG) Melvyn Ong and have full authority to scrutinise and enforce safety processes and practices at all levels of the SAF.

LG Ong held a*command call at Pasir Laba Camp earlier Thursday, where he met with 750 active and operationally ready National Service commanders and shared plans to make training safer for SAF servicemen.

Speaking to media after the command call, Chief of Army Major-General (MG) Goh Si Hou said that*the army will expand*the number of safety inspection teams and full-time safety officers to conduct checks and audits on units' safety systems.*

This was part of the army's effort to strengthen safety management structures on the ground, MG Goh said.

MG Goh also said that the safety time-out that was implemented across the army in the wake of actor Aloysius Pang’s death will be lifted progressively after Feb 7.*

All army units will be allowed to resume basic types of training such as physical fitness training, small arms live-firing, Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) and IPPT Preparatory Training (IPT) for NSmen from Feb 7.*

Corporal First Class (NS) Pang, an armament technician with the 268th Battalion, had been injured while conducting repair work on a Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer.*

The 28-year-old had been participating in Exercise Thunder Warrior, a*live-firing exercise, in New Zealand when the accident happened.*

Pang died on Jan 23 after undergoing a number of operations to treat his injuries.*

“Safety is a command responsibility. Commanders answer for the training and safety of their men. To do so, commanders have to be fully committed and personally and intimately involved in their unit’s training, operations, and safety,” said LG Ong, as cited in the press release.*

“The reduction in training tempo will allow us commanders to take stock, re-orientate, and give full attention to this,” he added.

MINDEF confirmed on Wednesday*that a Committee of Inquiry (COI) was convened on Jan 25 to investigate Pang's death, with a judge from the State Court as its chairman.*

Other members of the COI panel include a consultant medical specialist, a member of the External Review Panel on SAF Safety, a member of the Workplace Safety and Health Council and a senior-ranked national serviceman.

None of the COI members work within MINDEF or are SAF regulars, the ministry said.

The incident in New Zealand is*the fourth time in 18 months that an SAF soldier has died*while*training.

Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen is set to deliver a ministerial statement at the next parliamentary sitting in February to address the deaths.

The command call was also attended by Chief of Air Force MG Mervyn Tan, Chief of Navy Rear-Admiral Lew Chuen Hong and all senior commanders of the SAF.

Source: CNA/ad(hs)
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...indef-11190430

one of e comment quite candid but rather logical...

Let's hope CFC Pang's death really AWAKENS Mindef and we dont need more unnecessary MinDEATHS.

renamed Ministry of Death (MinDeath) and the minister will be the Minister of Death

“The reduction in training tempo will allow us commanders to take stock, re-orientate, and give full attention to this,” he added.


This is the main cause.
You can have all the safety guidelines on paper
But when u rush, rush, rush ..... how to make sure the safety guidelines are followed ?


And dun tell us to speak up to the commanders when safety concerns are stretched ....
like as if we never do NS before

Till 7th February, pause.

Wayang then back to square one. If national selfish, bochap and taichi attitude dun change, step by step the whole country will be finished. Rich one zao, poor ones stay back n suffer together.

After more than 50 years of NS still cannot improve safety standards
Parents damn heartache
Bring up a son but died not at war but during training

Use public fund to set up this and that

Compiled some reports and put some new SOP into place then all ok.
All these will take several weeks, all quiet down liao by then.

My take is accident will continue to happen, very little we can do about it.
I am a trained infantry officer. My observation is that accident and injury happen when fatigue set in. Yet, we cannot train our boys less hard as in war we do not have the option of calling for tea break.
Training needs to mirror real scenario.
My officers in the army once said, if I could put u through without food and sleep, I would do it but your parents wouldn’t like it.

That is why i said review kee lan.:D

I am still waiting for the incident report of aloysius case to be shown in public media.

Last time in my recce course, we slept two hours a day. Middle of night backpack signal set and ran about in tekong forest for hours regularly, got men kena tekan to drank two litres water quickly also zero casuality. Made us walked under hot sun in full chemical defence suit, until one collapsed, then exercise cut, was that to test the human limit? The only injuries sustain by a few in the whole company are just sprained back that downgraded them. Those are not really training injuries but from doing cheap labours like building spectator stands.:D

The only accurate details will be the other 2 guys inside.