Man crushed to death by armored tank on Jelly Belly CEO's property

Press Democrat ^ | 25 Aug 2015

[rey]

FAIRFIELD

[Drew68]

Authorities say a man was accidentally crushed to death with a World War II-era tank on a Jelly Bean's chairman Herman Rowland's property in Fairfield.

Reagan's fault.

[jimmygrace]

Car surfing is dangerous enough... but tank surfing?!?

[Noumenon]

Note the use of language here:

Armored tank
Military tank

These are scary, oogly-boogly words that only an ill-informed liberal wimp could come up with. Next thing you know, those big, scary tanks will also have come equipped with 30 caliber magazine ghost clips that can fire hundreds of bullets in less than ten seconds. From the hip.

[SamAdams76]

There was a boating accident in my parts where a passenger was riding on a moving boat with his legs over the side. Boat hit a bump and he fell into the water and had his arm sliced off by the outboard motor propeller.

Sometimes people do things like this without even thinking about the consequences.

[CrazyIvan]

Of course. How foolish of me.

[Carl Vehse]

"Wright was a passenger and was sitting on the front edge of the tank."

Been there. Done that. At Ft. Knox on an M-48, instructing an AIT trainee-driver (the commlink was broken) as the tank slowly teetered on its tracks at the top of a small hill, then tottered over and we rode down. The main gun was in the locked position to the rear.

[5th MEB]

Tanks are nothing but artillery, rocket, RPG, and bullet magnets, I always tried to stay as far away from them as possible.

[antidisestablishment]

Those 47s and 48s didn’t have a lot of handholds. They were safer than the M-60 with the auto-decaptitate hatch, though. As long as you never hot-fueled them!

[Carl Vehse]

When the main gun is locked to the rear, the back of the turret had some rails and racks for me to grab.

[archy]

When I was in the Army we had at least one "run over by tank" death each year at Ft. Bliss

In a tank battalion in the 1960s [17 tanks each in 3 companies, plus 3 more in headquarters tank section, 4 crewmembers per vehicle] we expected to have one fatality or disability per year. More than that, and there'd be a new battalion commander.

[Hoffer Rand]

Clearly there needed to be a warning label on the hood that sitting there was dangerous. They must sue, testify before a congressional oversight committee, and advocate for immediate passage of Kevin’s Law.

[archy]

Ping.

Pong. You figure me old enough to have crewed in an M5A1?

Actually, during WWII, D Company of my old outfit did have 'em, but did away with the *recon company* after the Korean War.

[archy]

If these things went up against MK V Panzers, I'm surprised there are any left to run over people.

70th Armor crews were known to wire a bazooka under the 37mm [about an inch-and-a-half bore diameter] main gun tube and then connect it to the driver's horn button. Taking on a Mk V Panther would have been a bit much, but against the more usual German armoured car, halftrack or MkIII/MK IV tanks, it seemed to work okay, particularly at night or in early morning fog. But you only got one chance.

[archy]

Wright was a passenger and was sitting on the front edge of the tank."

Been there. Done that. At Ft. Knox on an M-48, instructing an AIT trainee-driver (the commlink was broken) as the tank slowly teetered on its tracks at the top of a small hill, then tottered over and we rode down. The main gun was in the locked position to the rear.

On the driver training range/ vehicle recovery area, where a newbie driver sped up going into a mud-filled waterhole instead of while climbing out of it. And I knew the hole was deeper than the driver's hatch, about halfway up to the turret. I bailed, and the gunner side track missed me by about a foot and a half.

[archy]

From the LA Times article, it would appear as though the M5 was modified and no longer has a turret. Basically making it a weak APC.

From the accompanying photo, it appears to have been one of the turretless ones modified into an M4 artillery gun tow/ crew and ammo transport vehicle.

[rjsimmon]

Yep, that looks like it. Worthless POS.

[JediJones]

If only...

[archy]

Clearly there needed to be a warning label on the hood that sitting there was dangerous. They must sue, testify before a congressional oversight committee, and advocate for immediate passage of Kevin’s Law.

The warning label is underneath, on the hull bottom. He may have jumped underneath to read it to make sure he didn't get hurt.

[nascarnation]

[archy]

Thank you JediJ. You will note that Mr Dukakis is standing in the loader's hatch position, not the driver's or commander's. The loader's job is the one generally given to the newest rookie on the crew.