One dead in army truck crash

One person is dead and two are critically injured after an army Unimog truck crashed in the Kawarau Gorge between Queenstown and Cromwell this afternoon.

The NZ Defence Force said the Unimog truck was conducting a driver training exercise north when it left the road and crashed into a river.

Defence Minister Mark Burton and the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Marshall Bruce Ferguson, in a statement this afternoon, expressed their "deep regret" at the loss of life and injury."Their thoughts are with the families of the personnel involved in this tragedy."

St John said ambulances from both Queenstown and Alexandra attended along with a helicopter from Dunedin.

The NZ Army would conduct an investigation into the accident.

The crash was the fifth fatal incident involving a Defence Force Unimog since 1994.

It was the second recent fatality involving army soldiers and a Unimog vehicle on a driver training exercise.

In August last year Private Sean James Dougherty, 29, and Private Daniel Kairua, 22, died on August 11 when their Unimog truck rolled almost 400m off Bossu Rd near Wainui on Banks Peninsula. The accident raised questions about the safety of the ageing Unimog fleet.

A third soldier in the Unimog was badly injured in the crash, which happened in icy conditions.

Eight days later an army Unimog truck rolled down a bank onto its roof inland from Greymouth.

In October last year three Linton Army Camp soliders were injured when their Unimog truck went over a bank near Wimbledon, east of Dannevirke.

A court of inquiry into the April 2000 death of Staff Sergeant Billy White in a Unimog crash in East Timor recommended the army look at the feasibility of putting roll bars into the trucks.

His death came only five months after Warrant Officer Tony Walser died in East Timor when a Unimog rolled six metres down a bank.

- Herald staff and Newstalk ZB