Officer in charge of march in which three heat-stricken reservists died says he did not notice L/Cpl Edward Maher’s GPS tracker was static for at least 44 minutes

An army officer running a test march in which three reservists died failed to spot that one of the soldiers had stopped moving for at least 44 minutes, an inquest has heard.

The officer said he did not see that L/Cpl Edward Maher was no longer moving because he had not “hovered the mouse [cursor]” over the reservist’s GPS tracker, monitored on his computer while sitting in the command vehicle. Doing so would have presented detailed information on his route times and distance travelled, he told the inquest on Friday.

The coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, Louise Hunt, said: “It is quite difficult for me to understand how you wouldn’t notice. When Edward was found, there were signs that he was already developing rigor mortis.”

The officer replied: “At the time, I hadn’t noticed that that tracker was static.”

Hunt asked the witness, a regular with the Army Signals who passed the SAS selection course in 1997, whether he had been “properly monitoring” the soldiers’ progress.

He replied: “I was in the front of the [command] vehicle, and I was monitoring the screen, yes.”

The officer was speaking at an inquest exploring the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Maher, L/CplCraig Roberts, and Cpl James Dunsby after the march on Brecon Beacons on 13 July 2013.

Each of the soldiers was carrying, in addition to at least 22kg (49lbs) of kit, a GPS tracker that showed their movements, updated every 10 minutes, to the test commanders. Police investigations found that Maher stopped moving at 2.16pm. But the officer said that at 3pm he decided to dismantle one of the route’s five checkpoints on the basis that “everyone was making good progress”.

He said: “I have tried, as you can imagine, been thinking about this every day for two years, why it wasn’t picked up and at the time no alarm bells were ringing. I wasn’t looking at that individual tracker with any concern. Everyone was making good progress.”

But the coroner said: “It seems to me it’s all a bit cursory. You just look at the [computer] screen, decide to shut checkpoint, and didn’t do any analysis of where candidates actually were, and what their speed was? So you actually had no idea, how he was moving?”

The officer replied: “I was content the position was suitable – from a position point of view, not a time point of view, it was.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The 16-mile march took place in Brecon Beacons, Wales. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Earlier, he described the tracking system as “not fit for purpose” as it was “fairly old”, and said concerns about the system had been well known.

Concern was eventually raised for Maher, but the inquest has previously heard that a medic is not thought to have reached the 31-year-old until 4.45pm by which time he was cold to the touch.

Turning to the events of the following day, when another test march was planned around Wales’s highest peak, the army officer told the coroner: “It turned out to be an absolute nightmare.” He recounted that press, public and investigation teams descended on the area while he was trying to run a secure march.

On the previous night he had spoken with the commanding officer of the reserves’ unit with misgivings about taking any more of their troops out on the mountainside, after what had happened on 13 July. However, it was agreed the reserves would join the regulars on the second day of test marching , but complete a shorter route.

Asked by the coroner what he thought of the decision to press on, he said he was “not happy” but the decision made was above his head.

He confirmed there were further instances of reservists going down with heat injuries on 14 July, and of reservists being taken off the march altogether.

Hunt then asked: “What do you think caused these three men to die day?

The army officer replied: “It’s inconceivable to me how three men from the same unit, living in the same room, undergoing the same selection process should suffer the same injuries on the same day all around the same time when they were going so well. These were clearly determined, motivated, dedicated, focused soldiers. They had already been assessed as suitable to start test week.

“However, in my opinion, the course syllabus for preparation unfortunately didn’t provide them with the suitable conditioning to undertake the arduous test week requirements.”

Hunt asked whether the dynamic risk assessment that the officer carried out on the day of the fatal exercise was adequate. After a long pause, he said “there should be more consideration” given to the process.

All three reservists collapsed during a 16-mile (26km) test march on one of the hottest days of the year. Roberts, 24 and originally from Penrhyn Bay, Conwy, and Maher, born in Hampshire, collapsed and died from the effects of heat. They were pronounced dead on the mountainside. Dunsby, 31, of Trowbridge in Wiltshire, died on 30 July from multiple organ failure having been transferred to the Queen Elizabeth hospital, Birmingham.