General Dynamics LAV Seats cause the death of a US Marine, Injuries to others....

Thanks for the article Jonathan...

via Marine Times.

Lance Cpl. John Cagle had returned from a mounted combat patrol in Afghanistan when he and his fellow Marines began something entirely routine: a post-operation check of their Light Armored Vehicle.
He didn’t survive it.
Cagle, 19, was killed Sept. 28, 2011, on a base in Helmand province’s Reg-e Khanashin district after a hydraulically operated seat rose rapidly, squashing his throat between the seat-back and the roof of the vehicle, a Marine Corps investigation found.
Other Marines found Cagle with a “deep indentation, one inch by one inch, on the back of his neck,”according to documents released to Marine Corps Times through the Freedom of Information Act. His airway appeared crushed or broken, the documents said.
Although the investigation concluded about a month after Cagle’s death, the findings weren’t released to media until recently. After Cagle’s accident, 21 other Marines with 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., told investigators they had seen LAV seats rise quickly and unexpectedly. In some cases, trapped Marines could reach a lever to disengage the seat; in others they had to yell for help, according to witness statements released with the report.
One lance corporal with Charlie Company, 2nd LAR, described an incident prior to Cagle’s death in which he was trapped by the neck between the back of a seat and the roof of a vehicle.
“I knew I was in danger of getting caught in the rapidly rising seat, so I jumped back to get out of the way,” the Marine told investigators. “Unfortunately, I was too slow and my neck was caught against the ceiling by the seat-back.”
The Marine was freed by a sergeant in his unit.
Another lance corporal was trapped by a driver’s seat during predeployment training early in 2011 at Twentynine Palms, Calif. The seat elevated when he put weight on it while crawling through the vehicle, he said.
“My torso became pinned between the roof of the vehicle and the seat-back around my stomach,” he told investigators.
His breathing was unaffected, and he could reach the seat control, but knew the incident could have been more serious.
“If I had been a few inches further back,” he said, “I would have been trapped by the chest or neck.”

Wow.

To be killed by your own vehicle.

I don't even know what to say about this.  Read it all at Marine Times.