A Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) All Terrain Vehicle T-boned a civilian SUV in Washington D.C. this morning and the driver of the SUV was taken to the hospital. The aftermath of the accident was captured in photos shared with 404 Media provided by Operand Online and in a video on the /r/washingtondc subreddit.
The crash happened around 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. “We responded to a two vehicle crash at 8th street and North Carolina avenue. One of the vehicles was a military vehicle,” D.C. Emergency Medical Services spokesperson Vito Maggiolo told 404 Media. “We extricated the driver of the civilian vehicle…and that driver was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries."
The D.C. National Guard did not return 404 Media’s request for comment, but told Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe that a National Guard M-ATV hit the civilian and that the crash was "currently undergoing an investigation.”
The D.C. National Guard is conducting "presence patrols” in the D.C. metro area—a term of art originally used by the Pentagon to describe Global War on Terror operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. During a "presence patrol,” troops walk through civilian areas as a show of force. These current patrols are happening at the behest of President Donald Trump. At the moment, the DC National Guard is unarmed but guardsmen have been ordered to train with pistols and may be armed on the streets of D.C. in the coming days.
M-ATVs are a product of America’s war in Afghanistan. They were pitched as a lighter weight and more nimble version of the Pentagon’s MRAP that was designed to navigate Afghanistan’s crumbling infrastructure. M-ATVs weigh 15 tons, or around 30,000 pounds, and are meant to survive the blast from an improvised explosive device. A 15 ton vehicle moving at high speed will have a hard time stopping on any street, let alone the streets of D.C.
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