The fatal incident De Kruif witnessed occurred at a training ground in the Czech Republic. An armored vehicle reversed over a bridge, broke through the side and ended up in the water. The man who was in the turret did not get out of the vehicle in time and died. They resuscitated him for a very long time, but it no longer helped. “That image is still very clear to everyone who was there,” De Kruif told NU.nl.
Therefore, De Kruif can speak from experience when it comes to the impact of such an accident. “Something like that is a huge shock for the unit and the commander, in addition to the unimaginable shock it is for the parents.”
It is still unclear what happened Tuesday night in Germany. What is known, however, is that the fallen Royal Army corporal was participating in the “Ferocious Bison” exercise near the Munster Süd training area. It is also known that the incident involved a so-called Fennek armored vehicle.
Earlier this year, a Dutch soldier was also killed in an accident involving an armored vehicle during an exercise in Germany. But De Kruif warns not to compare the two incidents. For example, the earlier incident was at an exercise site in northern Germany.
“You do everything you can to prevent something like this from happening,” De Kruif stressed. “When it happens, it’s always too late and always terrible.” He says the military trains as safely as possible. “But you can never eliminate all risks.” Similarly, you want to train as “true to reality” as possible. “In a general sense, of course, training is always risky,” says De Kruif. “You never want it to happen, but it can always happen.”
“It’s dangerous work,” adds Tine Molendijk. As a cultural anthropologist, her research includes morality in war and military culture. In that role, she is affiliated with Radboud University and the Netherlands Defense Academy. She feels that society sometimes has difficulty dealing with the idea that the military is a dangerous organization.
“What the military does is fight and deal with unsafe situations,” Molendijk emphasizes. “It’s about getting ready for war, but ideally we see it as a kind of Doctors Without Borders.”
To practice as safely as possible, Molendijk says there are an awful lot of rules, training, education and procedures. Still, fatal accidents are unfortunately part of it. According to her, over the past twenty years many more soldiers have died during exercises at home and abroad than from roadside bombs and combat contact during deployments. However, she immediately adds that the Netherlands does not have that many missions with combat contact.
Molendijk emphasizes that she does not want to approach the accident during the exercise in Germany in a businesslike manner. “These are risks of this type of occupation.” In that sense, Molendijk says it can be compared to fatal industrial accidents in other sectors. According to her, the figures in construction, for example, are much higher.
The Labor Inspectorate’s Work Accidents Monitor shows that there were 12 fatal accidents in the construction industry in 2024. Questions about exact figures of fatal incidents involving military personnel are off with the military police. This year the aforementioned incident made the news and a year earlier a fatal incident involving a 28-year-old Dutch Army officer.
It feels extra wry when someone dies during an exercise. “Because it feels unnecessary,” Molendijk says. “At the same time, soldiers also realize that the real work doesn’t start until deployment.” As De Kruif said earlier, the goal is to train as realistically as possible. Soldiers shoot with live ammunition, work with the vehicles and sleep relatively less during an exercise.
“You can never rule out equipment failure or human error,” De Kruif said. And if that happens, it will always be traumatic. Defense also always investigates to learn lessons.
“Every accident is one too many,” De Kruif emphasizes. “But practicing realistically unfortunately has a price, statistically speaking.” Military personnel must practice, because otherwise the consequences in a war situation can be much worse. “Therefore, it does not become dangerous only the moment you go on deployment,” Molendijk adds.
As a society, we must prepare for the fact that fatal accidents can happen more often, even – or perhaps especially – during exercises. Molendijk spoke about this recently in the Lower House, because the Netherlands wants to scale up Defense. That also means more exercises.
“And the more you practice, the more danger you have and the higher the risk of accidents.” That’s why she warned the Chamber, “This is going to happen again in the future. That is the tragic reality and it is terrible.”
Some 550 military personnel participated in the exercise Ferocious Bison. It began on Sept. 30 and was supposed to end on Wednesday, but was ended as early as Tuesday night due to the death of the soldier. The exercise revolved in part around shooting with live ammunition to prepare soldiers to defend NATO territory.
