SINGAPORE ARMED FORCES TRAINING CASUALTIES
2. Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong: To ask the Minister for Defence if he
will provide a breakdown of yearly statistics, from the inception
of the Singapore Armed Forces to date, on (i) the number of
training deaths per year; (ii) the number of injuries that resulted
in loss and/or impairment of functions of bodily parts; and (iii)
the number of servicemen who were hospitalised for more than three
days per year due to training accidents.
RAdm Teo Chee Hean:
MINDEF has compiled the figures for number of injuries, and deaths
due to training for the last 10 years. Over the past 10 years, an
average of 3.7 deaths each year is attributable to training.
Between 1994 to 1998, there were 21 deaths attributable to
training. There were 16 deaths between 1999 to Oct 2003. Between
1994 to Oct 2003, there were 3,703 cases of injuries from all
causes. This figure includes injuries not caused by training. For
2003, there were 256 injury cases of which 196 were training
related. MINDEFs database captures data on hospitalisation since
2000. Based on our records for the past 4 years, an average of 8.6
servicemen were hospitalised each month due to medical conditions
attributable to training. The available data does not differentiate
between hospitalisation for periods of less than as compared to
more than 3 days.
This is the first time that a Defence Minister revealed the
statistics for training deaths & injuries in the SAF in
Parliament, but it was not even mentioned in any local news report,
kind of self-censoreship by the local media.
He only revealed statistics for the last ten years which they have
placed strong emphasis on safety regulation yet SAF still has 3.7
deaths/year.
Wondered what is the death rate due to training accident during 70s
to mid 80s where there is little safety regulation at all!
And how abt the those that have committed suicide especially the
early years of NS?