TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A soldier was left unconscious and an officer injured after an accident during maintenance work on a tank at an Army base in Pingtung County Thursday (July 21) morning.
Initial reports said an irregularity occurred with the stabilizing system on the gun turret of an M41 tank, with the turret hitting an officer called Chiang (蔣) and a soldier named Chuan (全) who had been working on the vehicle.
Both men were transferred from the 8th Army Corps 564th Armored Brigade to a hospital in nearby Fangliao, where Chuan was reported unconscious and in critical condition. Chiang was stable after receiving treatment for injuries to the chest, CNA reported.
The military had formed a special taskforce to investigate the cause of the accident. The Liberty Times noted that the 564th Armored Brigade lost four men in Aug. 2016, when the brakes on a CM-11 tank failed and the vehicle crashed off a bridge into a river in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township.