this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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I fondly remember back in the days doing military exercise marches on public roads:
The last soldier in the column would have to walk with a signalling light attached to the top of his helmet.
I typically walked in some front row (benefit of being tall and placed there for some military-aesthetics reasons), so was at least spared that embarrassment. :-)
At about 0620 on February 17th 1997, a platoon of 38 royal guard recruits, and additional NCO and a lieutenant, were marching along a public road when the driver of a Ford Transit van plowed through the platoon from behind. 20 were injured, of these two died.
I know it must have looked so stupid, and felt incredibly embarrassing. But somebody made a decision to not have you guys killed.
Absolutely, not questioning that for a moment!
(Same reason my wife wears similar lights when riding her horse along public roads in winter also it also looks embarrasing).
My military time has been before the incident you mentiioned btw (got drafted in 1995 for 10 months), which makes the incident even more tragic (if they didn't use the warning lights), as the lights at the rear seem to already have been common practice in some armies at the time...
I found sources stating that the platoon was wearing regulation lights. They had white light in front, red light in the rear, and were marching in three rows (sorry, don't know the correct English military term, Danish is "geled")
When I looked at the photo I discovered that the soldiers were wearing a reflective band around their right boot, as is regulation when moving in traffic in the dark.
So maybe my first point of "stfu it's for your own sake and people got killed making these rules" don't stand, at least not with my example. But then again, it doesn't sound like we're disagreeing on this one.
RIP
Driver didn’t see them? Charges filed against driver?
Driver said he wanted to make sure to get weather announcements as it was -12°C, so he was adjusting the radio and didn't see them.
Apparently the driver was charged with negligent homicide, but I can't find any verdict.
Likely punished enough already in that moment :(
Yeah, I found some interviews with the driver, marking the 15th anniversary etc. He seem pretty tormented by the fact that he killed two people. There's a whole philosophical/political debate on whether he should have been punished, but I think that's a bit too off topic even for me at this point.
Suffice it to say, it was a tragic event and it happened almost 30years ago. We can't do much about it, other than learning.
Eyes. On. The. Road!
Thank you for sharing
Context for the photo?
Sorry, I must have missed that in my pursuit of sharing a memory. I have now written an update.
That was me in 2001 during basic training (one of the last conscripts in Germany). Wen we marched to the firing range I had to wear a blinky light right on my helmet. It was embarrassing, but so is the whole service if you are not really into that stuff.