KEY POINTS:
An army investigation is under way into how an all-terrain vehicle became stuck in the Waimakariri River yesterday, forcing three soldiers to swim for their lives.
The $300,000 Pinzgauer light operational vehicle was on driver training manoeuvres in the fast-flowing Canterbury river yesterday afternoon when it drove into a hole while crossing the river about 1km upstream from the State Highway 1 bridge.
The female driver and two male passengers from Burnham military camp, south of Christchurch, had to swim about 40m to the riverbank.
Major Denise Mackay, of army public relations, said the Pinzgauer became unbalanced when it drove into the hole and the engine cut out.
"The vehicle then got caught in the current and started to get pulled into deeper water," she said.
"That's when the soldiers did what they were meant to do and bailed out and got themselves to shore."
Maj Mackay said officers from the Third Landforce Group at Burnham were investigating.
Soldiers recovered the damaged Pinzgauer late yesterday afternoon after it had drifted about 50m downstream and became lodged on a sandbank.
The routine investigation that followed any accident involving an army vehicle would focus on whether all procedures had been followed and all safety measures taken during the exercise.
Maj Mackay said braided rivers, such as the Waimakariri, offered a "good opportunity for drivers to practice their skills".
The Waimakariri, swollen from heavy rain in the Southern Alps over the last several days, was flowing at around 230 cubic metres a second but was not considered dangerous, an Environment Canterbury spokesman said.
"Where they normally drive may have been scoured out," Maj Mackay said. "Obviously, they wouldn't have known there was a big hole there."
- NZPA
