Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ddasaccident813, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The report of this accident is compiled from press reports, edited for anonymity. Text in square brackets [ ] is editorial.

In a land mine clearance operation along the China-Vietnam boarder in Yunnan Province, Southwest China on October 11, [the Victim] chose to handle the complex situation by himself after asking his partner to step back. The explosion took [the Victim]'s both hands and eyes.

The Victim was defusing a mine when the accident occurred. Although no particular mine is mentioned, a Chinese Type 58 anti-personnel blast mine is inferred because it is shown in photographs and a fragmentation mine …

Ddasaccident807, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

At 10:50am TL announced a regular ten minutes break and deminers took their rest close to the base line of the MF. TS took one of the deminer’s metal detector MineLab F3S and entered 3m deep into uncleared area. He started investigation of subsurface metal signals. TS called TL [Name removed] who was sitting in the safe area in proximity of 15m from TS. When TL took his first step towards TS the explosion occurred. As a result of explosion force, TS’s helmet hit TL’s chest and TL fell down to the ground. When TL stood up he saw the …

Ddasaccident806, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The explosion occurred in the mined area of the Khoshima Novobod Qabodiyon community. As a result of a PMN explosion a deminer received light injuries This de-miner had been sent by [Demining group] for the mine clearance operation according to the task.

Ddasaccident811, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred outside of cleared and marked area, in the bank of Panj River, just 3m away from water line. TL left his helmet and map case in the cleared area (found later in systematic technical survey lane), stepped over the marking and proceeded passing through the uncleared dangerous area towards to river. The foot prints on the ground are clearly visible where TL stepped over the marking. The distance (straight line) between this place and place of explosion is 77m.

Ddasaccident805, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Whilst the Team leader was at the CP reporting the find, the three deminers – [Victim No.1], [Victim No.2] and [Victim No.3] - moved from their lanes to view the PMN. It was at this stage that [Victim No.1] stepped on the missed PMN. The missed mine was located approximately 1.5 metres from the marked PMN.

Ddasaccident798, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

During the sampling of the cleared area the TA continued prodding (each 2 centimetres) into the clear and unclear area as an overlap and excavating any resistance on the prodder in the very loose sand. Without any prodding force a detonation took place causing 1 PMN AP to explode.

Ddasaccident719, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 22 December 2010 team arrived to the area on 06:30 and started operation on 07:00 working for 45 minutes and then 15 minutes break, the second round started on 08:00 for the same working and breaking period. The third round started on 09:00, [the Victim] worked in his clearance lane using metal detector and then stopped on 09:25 wanted to mark his clearance lane. He picked up marking material/equipment attempted to mark his clearance lane. On the way back he slipped out from his cleared lane to un-clear area, his right foot came on a mine and the accident …

Ddasaccident753, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On the 7th Oct 2010 at 08:40, the deminer [the Victim] initiated a PMN anti-personnel mine with a pick outside of his clearance lane which caused the accident. The section leader was around 60 meters away busy in taking coordinates of a found mine with GPS and the team leader was busy in admin area updating the attendance sheet. The deminer was busy in the minefield without being observed by the command group for almost 15 minutes during the operation while the accident happened.

Ddasaccident594, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 04 May 2010 at 08:45 am while [the Victim] the de-miner was excavating a detected signal in his clearance lane, his bayonet hit top of an anti-personnel PMN mine and caused it to go off. According to the investigation report, it seems that the de-miner started excavation directly from the pinpointed spot with his bayonet and caused the explosion and accident. Unfortunately improper use of PPE caused catastrophic injuries to the face and eyes of the victim deminer. He has lost his right eye, traumatic amputation of right-hand fingers and sustained some superficial injures on different parts of his …

Ddasaccident595, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 9th April 2010 at 10:27 while [the Victim] was working in his clearance lane, busy in excavation drill, the accident happened and caused severe injuries to his right hand (traumatic amputation) and some minor injuries to his neck and nose. His visor was broken down and separated from headband. As per the investigation report, the deminer has breached the SOPs as dug directly down on top of the mine. It is also possible that he tried to work in a bit hurry to increase the progress. As he was fully dressed with PPE, therefore, remained save from other severe …

Ddasaccident733, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 15 March 2010 at 08:55 hrs while [the Victim] was busy in excavation of a detected signal, suddenly the accident happened. As a result the deminer got severe injuries on his face, eyes and his right hand.

Ddasaccident641, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 10 Oct 2009 at 11:20 hrs when [the Victim] deminer was working in his clearance lane with a pickaxe that suddenly an explosion happened. As per investigation report the deminer was using pickaxe instead of bayonet because the ground surface was hard. He started to prepare a trench by pickaxe from second reading marker for further investigation of the signal, but there was a stone in close vicinity of pinpointed spot and the deminer wanted to remove it, so his pickaxe might touched the PMN mine or the stone put extra pressure on the mine and the explosion happened. …

Ddasaccident752, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 1st July 2009 MU-16 of [Demining group] started clearance operation on mentioned task. On 08 July 2009 at 0919hrs while [the Victim] was investigating a signal in his clearance lane, he found two bullets. He re-checked the spot and found the same signal, this process repeated for three times. Finally he found a root stump in the excavation trench with a thickness of around 2.5 cm and started to remove it, because it was blocking further excavation there. However the deminer had proper tool in his toolkit to cut such obstacles, but he tried to cut it with his …

Ddasaccident781, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 20 January 2009 while de-miner [the Victim] was working in his clearance lane excavating a detected signal, his bayonet stroked the top of a PMN mine and caused it to explode. According to the investigation report the de-miner has not maintained and considered the default clearance depth during the excavation and used his bayonet carelessly, therefore, caused the accident. Unfortunately the victim was not fully dressed with PPE and his visor was up during the accident. Thus he has got several injuries on his face, legs and different parts of his body.

Ddasaccident727, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 19 January 2009 at 10:15 10 hours while [the Victim] was busy in excavating a detected signal, the explosion occurred due to PMN mine and caused the accident. Unfortunately as he was not fully dressed with PPE, therefore, he has got severe injuries on his face and lost his both eyes and some minor injuries on his hand and leg. According to the investigation report, it seems that he was working with pick instead of standard excavation tool and started excavation directly from the centre of the signal.

Ddasaccident696, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigation team concluded that the contributing factor to this accident was carelessness of deminer in terms of started excavation on the top of the detected signal, and poor command and control by acting team leader.

Ddasaccident660, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary and secondary causes of this accident are listed as Other because the accident summary lacks enough detail to infer anything useful about the events surrounding the accident.

Ddasaccident607, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as Inadequate training because it seems that the Victim started excavating on top of the mine. He may not have known how to pinpoint the detector reading appropriately, or may not have been instructed in safe excavation techniques. The secondary cause is listed as a Field Control Inadequacy because the investigators found that the field supervisors did not give appropriate information about the task site and did not correct his errors.

Ddasaccident619, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as Victim Inattention because the investigators imply that the Victim deliberately walked into the uncleared area. The secondary cause is listed as a Field Control Inadequacy because the field supervisors did nothing to prevent him doing so.

Ddasaccident612, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as Inadequate training because the investigators found that the Victim did not know how to excavate safely. The secondary cause is listed as a Management Control Inadequacy because it is a management responsibility to ensure that all deminers are appropriately trained.

Ddasaccident803, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred in a hazardous area high in the mountains. The demining group involved was searching the area with two mine dog teams and collecting discovered devices, moving them to a collection area. When the field supervisors went to count the discovered mines, the last collected item exploded, resulting in minor injuries to both supervisors.

Ddasaccident692, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigation team concluded that the contributing factor to this accident was Carelessness of deminer in terms of use of bayonet by left hand which was in contrary to his habit.

Ddasaccident636, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred because of carelessness of the deminer as he used chisel directly on the detected signal instead of [Demining group] standard excavating tool (scraper). The poor command and control is another contributing factor for this accident as he was not stopped by command group.

Ddasaccident704, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of the investigation team that the carelessness of involved deminer, use of wrong tool for excavation and poor supervision caused the accident happened.

Ddasaccident577, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Initial reports state that [the Victim] was working in his lane when a he initiated an unknown item. The size of the blast would indicate a partial or fuse assembly. A few seconds later, a larger explosion was heard, where [Name removed] had moved from his lane to assist [The victim]. [The second accident occurred when the rescuer] moved using the shortest possible route, through uncleared area. [See DDAS Accident 578 for details of the rescuer.]

Ddasaccident688, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of the investigation team that the carelessness of involved deminer, poor command and control and deviation from SOPs caused the accident happened.

Ddasaccident611, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of the investigation team that the involved deminer did not properly find the centre of the signal because of extra soil accumulated there, and thus started excavation directly from the top of the signal by force, which caused the accident happened.

Ddasaccident685, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as a Field Control Inadequacy because the Victim was working with his visor raised and using a pick and his error was not corrected. The secondary cause is listed as a Management Control Inadequacy because the demining group’s management is responsible for ensuring that field supervisors prevent deminers from breaching approved SOPs.

Ddasaccident639, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as a Field Control Inadequacy because the Victim was working with his visor raised and using a pick and his error was not corrected. The secondary cause is listed as a Management Control Inadequacy because the demining group’s management is responsible for ensuring that field supervisors prevent deminers from breaching approved SOPs.

Ddasaccident631, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 1st July 2009 MU-16 of [Demining group] started clearance operation on mentioned task, On 08 July 2009 at 0919hrs while [the Victim] was investigating a signal in his clearance lane, he found two bullets. He re-checked the spot and found the same signal, this process repeated for three times. Finally he found a root stump in the excavation trench with a thickness of around 2.5 cm and started to remove it, because it was blocking further excavation there. However the deminer had proper tool in his toolkit to cut such obstacles, but he tried to out it with his …