The serious accident suffered by a military truck carrying a Leopard 2A4

@DefAviation ES 8·07·2022 · 21:03 0

The transport of armored vehicles is somewhat delicate due to the dimensions and the weight of the cargo, and in an accident the result can be disastrous.

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On Monday, July 25, a Royal Netherlands Army DAF XF 105 truck, towing a low-loader trailer with a Leopard 2A4 main battle tank, suffered an accident colliding with a noise barrier on the A12 motorway near Reeuwijk, in the Dutch province of South Holland. According to the local media Mediatv.nl, the accident is believed to have been caused by an explosion in the truck. You can see the video of the accident published by that media here:

Below you can see a series of photos published by Toon van der Poel showing the rescue operation of accident vehicles.

A front view of the accident, with the DAF XF 105 next to the noise barrier it collided with.

As seen in this photo, the Leopard 2A4 moved to the left as a result of the collision.

In this photo we see fragments of the noise barrier on the Leopard 2A4. The Royal Netherlands Army no longer uses this variant of the Leopard 2. After operating 445 main battle tanks of this type, Currently the Dutch Army only has 18 Leopard 2A6M A2s in active service.

A side photo of the accident, in which it can be seen that the rear axles of the truck were destroyed. The Dutch Army bought 112 trucks of this type.

Two cranes were needed to lift the 55 tons of the Leopard 2A4. This tank, with license plate KU-84-48, is part of the batch of tanks of this type purchased by the Dutch Army from early 1980s. It served in the 42nd Tank Battalion, and is now part of the Dutch Army's historical collection. It was being transferred for maintenance.

The tank does not appear to have suffered serious damage as a result of the accident.

On the contrary, almost all the wheels of the flatbed trailer that transported the Leopard 2A4 were blown out. Here we can see it mounted on another trailer during the rescue operation.

The DAF XF 105 bore the brunt of the accident. It is an armored model, and the cab withstood the impact well, but other parts of the truck were destroyed.

Another image of the DAF XF 105 during the rescue operation. As the emblem on the right rear indicates, the truck belongs to the 140 Zwaar Transportcompagnie (Heavy Transport Company) of the Dutch Army.