Soldier killed, 3 others hurt in training exercise at CFB Wainwright
A Canadian soldier has been killed and three others hurt during a training exercise Tuesday in Wainwright, Alta.
Sgt. Robert "Bobby" J. Dynerowicz, an Armoured Crewman with the Royal Canadian Dragoons based at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, died following an accident involving a light armoured vehicle at CFB Wainwright around 8 a.m. MT.
"Two of the soldiers have been treated and they're back with their units here in Wainwright," base spokesperson Lt. Tony Wright told CBC Edmonton Tuesday. "One other soldier is still in hospital."
All four soldiers are from CFB Petawawa.
The cause of the accident has not yet been determined.
"It's still under investigation at the moment," Wright said. "We have Canadian Forces Military Police and our national investigative service, they're doing a forensic investigation of the accident so we can't really come to any conclusions about how this came to be."
Lt.-Gen. Paul Wynnyk, Commander of the Canadian Army, expressed sorrow over Dynerowicz's death.
"Not only is his death a painful loss to his family and friends, but we feel this loss across the Canadian Army and the entire military community," he said in a news release.
The accident happened during an exercise named Rugged Bear, a live-fire training event involving 3,000 soldiers as part of the army's Road to High Readiness training program.
The exercise began on April 15 and continues until Thursday.
"Any loss is a devastating one to the people here so we're just taking a pause, getting our heads wrapped around it and then we're going to carry on with the work we're doing here," Wright said.
"Right now we're planning a parade just for the units here who are affected. We're going to have it here on the base in the coming days."
This is the fifth reported death at the training base 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton since 2005, and the first since November 2014 when Pte. Steven Allen of Victoria, B.C. was killed after a lookout tower he was in collapsed.
In May 2014, Lt.-Col. Dan Bobbitt was killed at the base when the light armoured vehicle he was in rolled over during training manoeuvres. Four other soldiers were hurt in the same accident.
