Opposition MP's and anti nuclear protesters
are asking for explanations after the emergency in Wiltshire
surrounding a crashed lorry believed to have nuclear weapons on board
So this particular transport was taking the weapons
in a convoy and the route of the convoy would have followed
the A38 round Exeter and then joined up with the A303
coming off the A303 past Salisbury until it got to West Dean
which was near to Dean Hill: the military facility there, built into the hill
and that's where they wanted to get to
and that was where this accident occurred
We heard there had been a crash near West Dean
We immediately thought: "it's probably the nuclear weapon convoy"
So they came along that road
and as far as I understand there was another vehicle coming along it
So they had to manouvre around that vehicle
which meant that they were then on the edge of the road
and that led to the sliding
When we got there we found that a Mammoth Major
which is the big transport vehicle that the warheads were carried in
was on it's side
We could see that it had overturned on it's side - the front vehicle
the second vehicle was in the ditch
And the ground was completely frozen solid, and hard
so when the Mammoth Major had turned over it would have hit very hard ground
And we were told by the police who had blocked the road
saying: "there's been a heavy vehicle crash, you can't come this way"
But it was still a very confused situation
nobody really knew what was going on
There were very few roads in the area
and of course the authorities were closing off the roads immediately
It was a peculiar atmosphere that night
there was an odd atmosphere of people who really weren't sure what was going on
Whilst we were there we were faced by a line of soldiers
and so we would talk to them but we didn't get much of a reponse
I don't think they knew any more than us really
They probably didn't really know why they were there
It wasn't known whether the warhead had been dislodged
from its carrying sling arrangement inside the vehicle
or if it had any damage to it
or if it was likely that the high explosives would be activated by this accident
so I am quite sure that the soldiers were pretty scared that they were at risk
The marines' main aim in life was quite clearly to protect the weapon
They weren't doing anything about protecting people
or making sure that services were there that could warn people
So there was this sense that: were we in danger?
Were local towns and villages in danger?
We were not sure at that time
we were thinking: "I wonder what's happening there"
"Is there going to be some pollution,"
"some release of radioactive of radioactive material?"
We were very concerned...a bit concerned
but we thought: "we're here now, we'll wait"
All I can tell you is that
a military transport vehicle suffered an accident this afternoon
and we are now endeavouring to put it right
Were people in this area at risk at any time from this accident?
I can tell you that there were no casualties
I did hear afterwards that what was AWRE at the time
sent experts to come and examine the warhead
to see what condition it was in
Eventually they erected a tent
or some sort of canopy over the back
and we assumed that people from Aldermaston had arrived
So they obviously were examining the weapon
As far as I remember it went down to about -17 that night
It was really very, very cold
and many people who had anything like a sleeping bag with them
were actually standing up with sleeping bags around them
Things are deadened when it's icy like that
There was a deadened sound. They were quietly working in there,
We didn't know what they were doing
So we were a bit frightened, but in the end we thought
that if it had been severe leakage or some sort of leakage
then they probably would have moved us and themselves away from it
We shivered our way through that night whilst work continued on the vehicle
whilst the troops were changed
And then in the morning we staggered off the plain absolutely frozen stiff
In the early morning, after the accident they decided
they had to right the truck back onto the road
so that was quite a delicate operation
it involved bringing in a very big mobile crane
I think they had packed things inside the weapons carrier
sleeping bags, all sorts of things like that to stop the container
that has the weapons in from moving again
They then had to have a strap on the end of the crane
which was put underneath the truck, around the truck,
and gradually eased the thing back onto its wheels,
and delicately put it back onto the road
They then hitched it to the tow wagon that travelled with the convoy
and then they pulled the damaged one into West Dean
and we could see the damage on the side.
This accident would never have happened if they hadn't set out
in inclement weather in the middle of winter
I've put it down, with a history of understanding big organisations
from later work, as probably bureaucratic
Once you've got such a big structure in an organisation and you've scheduled
a movement on a particular day, it can be quite difficult to change it
But that doesn't stop you from taking basic safety precautions,
like checking whether the roads have been de-iced properly
They should have checked the road, they should have checked the weather
Something so simple to go wrong is quite worrying in a programme that's
so sophisticated as the programme to maintain nuclear weapons in this country
I think this was such a terrible event that the MOD
must have learned lessons from it, and they must have had to go back
and try and discover how it came about
It's one of those things with almost all disasters, there is a chain of events,
it's not some one single thing that has failed
With something like nuclear weapons there has to be a very careful responsibility
about how you handle these things. You have to have very thorough systems
to handle and move these things around, and this accident to me
seemed to be an illustration of even some of the basic checks
that you would've expected hadn't been taking place
So i think they're more concerned now to make sure that
there are safe driving conditions, and the drivers are trained well
I think it still possible for a severe accident to happen
There's been many minor bumps and things and breakdowns along the way
but all it takes is a moment of lack of attention,
some kind of odd circumstance on the road,
some kind of odd circumstance in the traffic and something happens
We all know that, we see it every day on every road
Things happen all of a sudden, quickly
This is still the deadliest cargo on our roads, and we have to treat it that way
