Pentagon Barrier Glitch Prompts Probe

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department, embarrassed after Germany’s defense minister was injured when a security barrier damaged his car, said Wednesday it was checking the system of steel gates guarding the Pentagon.

“There is an investigation under way to determine the cause of the accident,” department spokesman Bryan Whitman said, a day after a gate popped up and crumpled minister Rudolf Scharping’s limousine as he entered the grounds of the U.S. defense headquarters for a meeting.

Scharping received minor head and foot injuries and was released from a hospital with several stitches in his foot Tuesday night after a three-hour examination.

He and Defense Secretary William Cohen discussed defense issues at the hospital instead of at the Pentagon.

The $72,000 gates, two installed at each of three guarded entrances of Defense Department headquarters in 1993, are designed to rise after each car enters until the next car is cleared--unless a button is pushed to allow a series of cars to pass in an official motorcade.

But the barriers have risen at the wrong moment several times in recent years, including an accident in 1998 that injured former Japanese Defense Minister Fukushiro Nukaga when a gate lifted under his car.

A Chinese military motorcade was also involved in a gate mishap early this year, and former Defense Secretary William Perry was bruised when one rose under his limousine several years ago.

“We are still using the barriers (today), but a full investigation is being conducted at the orders of Defense Secretary Cohen to get this fixed,” Whitman told Reuters Wednesday. “It is our understanding that the barrier in question was in the ‘parade’ setting for a motorcade. But that is being checked,” Whitman said. Officials noted that a security car had moved safely past the barrier ahead of Scharping’s car.

Whitman stressed that the electronic system controlling the steel gates was changed shortly after the accident involving the Japanese minister to let motorcades pass more safely.

Two other people riding in Scharping’s Lincoln automobile were also slightly injured in Tuesday’s mishap.

Scharping, bleeding and pale after the impact threw him against the car’s roof, was taken to Arlington Hospital along with the German Defense Attache, Army Brig. Gen. Peter Goebel, and U.S. security agent John Salazar.

Cohen rode with Scharping to the hospital and remained with him during the medical checks. A banquet scheduled in Scharping’s honor Tuesday night was canceled.

German Defense Ministry spokesman Detlef Puhl said Scharping was shaky and pale immediately after the accident, which broke his glasses, but quickly recovered.

Scharping sat down in the road and then lay down briefly after climbing out of the car before being taken to Cohen’s dining room, where he was examined and bandaged by a U.S. military physician before going to the hospital.

Goebel suffered a bloody nose and Salazar received bruises on his chin and hand. Neither of the German officials, who were riding in the back seat, was wearing a seat belt, Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters in response to questions.