Why are there floating vests?
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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The wanderlust of anglican shrubberies.
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.
Update: I missed providing a context for the photo. It's from the site of the accident. Taken on the day at an unknown time. The soldiers in the background are the ones who where lucky and didn't get hit.
Looking closer at the photo now, I feel like editorializing a bit. As this happened a couple of years before I was up for the draft, the line up of the gear was all I could remember, when I went looking for the photo. It was seared into my memory, although it looked different in my head. I didn't remember neither weaponry nor soldiers.
At the time of the accident, it will have been pitch black. Sunrise was at 0728 that day, looking at the light I'd say the photo was taken some time after 0800 at the earliest. That approx 20 soldiers were left to wander about a field, in a state of emotional distress, for +2 hours, instead of getting picked up, or at the very least rounded up, says all you need to know about how well prepared the Danish defense forces were back then. I feel bad for those guys. Half their platoon has been picked up by ambulances, and now they're on their own.
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.
walk with a signalling light attached to the top of his helmet
That was me in 2001 during basic training (one of the last conscripts in Germany). When 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.
A colleague floating to/from the gathering.
pacer?
Why are there alarm vests floating in the air? Is this AI? What am I missing?
Spooky
some legs are melting and they're on a roof street of some sorts, so almost certainly
They seem conflicted.
Just floating yellow vests
They wanna flicker.
Pictured: Guys go on a field trip to experience some kind of freedom, the outside world, but before you could turn around they've grown up real fast. (The picture was published over 10 years ago.)
Edit: A joke that needs to be explained may not be a good one. Anyway. I was referring to preschool kids, which I see from time to time walking publicy within groups while some/all of them are wearing this kind of vests. And because some armies tend to recruit young adults or even teenagers I came up with my original post above.
I know we did that because public safety. In actual situation, of course not