The head of the Army has formally apologized to the family of a soldier killed by a defective vehicle, admitting that the service "failed him and those who loved him." General Sir Roly Walker, Chief of the General Staff, accepted a Crown Censure from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for health and safety failings that contributed to the death of Private Jethro Watson-Pickering.
Pte Watson-Pickering, 23, died five years ago from catastrophic head injuries while driving a Scimitar light tank during a training exercise on Salisbury Plain. The HSE investigation found there was "no safe system" for operating the vehicle after modifications had created a risk of the gun barrel colliding with the driver's head. The fault-prone gun barrel of Pte Watson-Pickering’s vehicle collided with a tree, sending the turret into a "violent rotation" that struck the soldier. Two other soldiers were seriously injured in the incident.
"We failed to properly assess and control the risks, failed in our training and instruction, and failed to provide a safe vehicle. Jethro should never have died," General Walker stated at Army Headquarters in Andover, in front of Pte Watson-Pickering's mother, Moira Watson-Pickering. He offered his "sincere condolences" and stated, "I am deeply sorry for their loss and for the Army's failings that contributed to his death."
The Ministry of Defence accepted the HSE's Crown Censure, the highest sanction available against the MoD, which cannot be prosecuted for health and safety breaches. HSE inspector Emma O’Hara said, "The MoD has a responsibility to take all reasonably practicable steps to control the risks to the safety of its employees. It failed to do so, which has cost a young man his life."
An internal military report from 2022 found that previous near-miss accidents involving similar vehicle modifications, dating back to 2008, were not properly investigated, and no changes were made to mitigate risks. The report also indicated that Pte Watson-Pickering and his colleagues received inadequate training, and the vehicle was in poor repair and "should not have been in use."
Moira Watson-Pickering has been campaigning to prevent similar training incidents from claiming other soldiers' lives. The Scimitar armored vehicle was withdrawn from UK service in 2023. Pte Watson-Pickering's death is one of five involving faulty military vehicles with known defects that had not been rectified between 2017 and 2022, according to a 2024 Daily Mail report. These incidents involved other vehicles, including the Challenger II tank, Warrior, and Jackal armored vehicles, leading to almost 300 failings and 227 recommendations from internal service inquiry reports. The MoD had previously accepted a Crown Censure over the death of SSgt John McKelvie, killed by a faulty Jackal in 2019, for which General Walker also issued an apology to his family.