Death of NSF Dave Lee: SAF officer charged with rash act causing death
Full-time national serviceman Dave Lee Han Xuan's military funeral on May 5, 2018. Singapore Armed Forces officer Tan Baoshu is accused of committing a rash act causing the death of the serviceman.
SINGAPORE — Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) officer Tan Baoshu, 30, was charged in court on Wednesday (Oct 30) in relation to the death of full-time national serviceman (NSF) Dave Lee.
Corporal First Class (CFC) Lee succumbed to heat injuries on April 30, after spending more than a week in intensive care in hospital.
Court documents showed that Tan, who was a captain in SAF, was CFC Lee’s officer commanding at the support company of the 1st Guards Battalion.
He was also the supervising officer of the 8km fast march, where CFC Lee was one of the participants on the morning of April 18.
After the march, CFC Lee showed signs of heat injury. Between 8.25am and 9.10am that day, Tan had allegedly failed to evacuate CFC Lee in a timely manner, and also disallowed the administration of “necessary treatment” to the NSF, which led to his death from heat stroke, court documents revealed.
Tan, represented by defence counsel Eunice Chua, will return to court on Nov 28. No plea was taken on Wednesday, and he was offered agency bail of S$10,000.
If convicted of an offence of rash act causing death, he could be jailed for up to five years, fined, or both.
CFC Lee’s parents were not present in court.
The police said in a media release that it has referred six other SAF servicemen who were involved in the incident to Mindef for investigations.
Mindef said in a separate statement on Wednesday that the six others comprise two regular servicemen, as well as four other operationally ready national servicemen.
"To prevent any prejudice arising from parallel proceedings, Mindef will defer its internal proceedings until after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings against Captain Tan," a Mindef spokesperson added.
The ministry also said that Tan has been suspended from service pending the outcome of the court proceedings.
If the six other servicemen are found to have committed military offences, they could be punished under the SAF Act, which could range from a fine to detention and/or reduction in rank, as well as other administrative penalties.
BACKGROUND TO THE CASE
CFC Lee, a Guardsman from the 1st Battalion Singapore Guards, had first shown signs of heat injury after an 8km fast march in Bedok Camp on the morning of April 18.
After an SAF medic tried to bring down his core temperature, he was sent to Bedok Camp's medical centre where an SAF medical team continued "body cooling measures and treatment".
He was taken to the Changi General Hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at about 9.50am that day.
CFC Lee died on April 30 after more than a week in intensive care at the Changi General Hospital.
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
A preliminary assessment from a Committee of Inquiry (COI) convened to look into the training death revealed that there was significant delay in evacuating CFC Lee, as well as inadequate measures given on-site after his fast march, which led to his death from the heat injuries.
On April 17, the day before the march, the conduct of an afternoon training session deviated from the lesson plan, resulting in CFC Lee running faster and having less rest than stipulated.
CFC Lee’s platoon was also "turned out" or mobilised that night for not observing "lights out", and were punished with physical exercises, among other things, resulting in the soldiers having six hours and 15 minutes of uninterrupted rest instead of the specified seven hours.
The COI found that these lapses leading up to the march could have resulted in accumulated fatigue and insufficient rest, which may have contributed to the heat stroke.
Other possible contributory causes were his less-than-optimal state of health, and potential use of medication for an acute upper respiratory tract infection more than two weeks before the incident.
The COI, however, found no evidence of foul play. There were also no systemic lapses.
SOME MEASURES SAF IS TAKING
Lowering the bar for medical evacuation such that any trainee who cannot respond to simple questions on time, place and identity will be evacuated immediately for heat injury.
Purpose-built cooling pads, which cool up to 15 times faster than ice, will be introduced. This replaces the use of six ice packs as an immediate on-site cooling measure.
The use of the Arm Immersion Cooling System — used by the United States’ and Australian militaries — will be made mandatory for fast and route marches spanning 12km and above, as well as endurance runs.
These measures will be rolled out progressively, and made mandatory, across all SAF units and training schools.
