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Full-Text Articles in Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
Ddasaccident529, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident529, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Details of this accident have been withheld by the demining NGO that employed the Victim. A spreadsheet including the Victim’s name and very brief details of the accident was made available in 2007. Some detail can be inferred from the information made available. For example, the fact that six people were injured during excavation of a small AP blast mine implies that safety distances were being ignored and field discipline was low. The main Victim also suffered head injuries that indicate that his head protection and visor were not being worn.
Ddasaccident046, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident046, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On the day of the accident the deminers started work at 07:45. The victim was working without a partner [whose absence was unexplained]. After finding many pieces of metal, he ignored other detector signals, moved in front of his end-of-lane marker and knelt to remove the forks from a bicycle. He should have finished his "shift" at 08:15 but at 08:19 he was putting the scrap metal to one side when his heel activated a PPM-2 mine that was 40cm "behind" his end-of-lane marker. He suffered the "loss" of both lower limbs, received lacerations to both arms and was penetrated …
Ddasaccident048, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident048, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 11:25 The victim initiated a PPM-2 mine and was blown backwards onto his detector. At 11:26 the victim was given first aid and was conscious. He had suffered "facial injury and lacerations to right hand". One minute later he was moved to the administration area where he was treated for "injuries to right hand, right knee" and his face was bandaged. The victim was evacuated by Land Rover at 11:40 and arrived at Huambo Hospital at 12:30. On arrival the escort was presented with a list of medical supplies to buy.
Ddasaccident051, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident051, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 07:30, [or 08:15 elsewhere] having only cleared a meter, the victim noticed that the marking stakes ahead of him were out of alignment so went into the adjoining exploratory lane to reposition them. He pushed a stake onto a mine that was on the border of the lane. He suffered light injuries on both arms. A quantity of earth was thrown up into his eyes, the skin of his face was lacerated and his right hand became inflamed. He was not wearing a visor. No one else was injured.
Ddasaccident053, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident053, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim began work at 07:00 and had worked with a ten minute break each hour until 12:34 when the accident occurred. The method involved excavating "to a depth of 20cm using a sideways sweeping motion" with the hoe [pick]. He had found one mine that morning and as he worked forward he encountered a rock ledge at only 5cm depth. He uncovered the rock for three metres until the ledge ended. At the edge of the rock was a tree root that the deminer tried to cut with the hoe. Either the movement of the tree root initiated the …
Ddasaccident057, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident057, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators visited the site on 9/10th July. They found that the accident occurred in a minefield laid by government troops in 1991/2. The mines were irregularly spaced in 3km long lanes. PPM-2 and POMZ-2 mines were found (largely) in different parts of the field. There was "scrub" about a metre high where the accident occurred and the ground was "hard clay with some organic mix" which allowed the use of detectors. Two parallel lines of PPM-2 mines had been found with an "exploratory base line". Further lanes were being cut to confirm the direction of the mine-lines. The accident …
Ddasaccident060, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident060, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The report stated that the demining task was a series of pylons and a bridge. Teams of two deminers per pylon were clearing a 10 metre square area around the base. When the board of inquiry visited the site on 1st March, demining was in progress around other pylons and they ordered it to stop immediately. The inquiry criticised the fact that the site had been tidied before their arrival. The were told that the victim had located two mines that day prior to the accident. These were destroyed and the victim was checking the blast area with his detector …
Ddasaccident062, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident062, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The report gave a timetable of events which indicated that the team started work at 06:00 and the accident occurred at 07:05 when the victim "prodded onto" a PPM-2. By 07:09 the victim had been carried to a safe area by two colleagues and was receiving treatment from the medic. The deminer "took deep blast wound to the area between the thumb and forefinger" of his left hand. The medic did not administer painkillers but "packs wound on the hand".
Ddasaccident063, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident063, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Meanwhile deminers from another team approached and joined the two who had moved closer to the sticks lying by the missed mine. As Victim No.1 bent to pick up the sticks he stepped on the mine with his left foot. His body was low down and immediately over the mine. As he had been resting, he was not wearing any protective equipment. He suffered traumatic amputation of his left foot, amputation of "several" fingers of his right hand, a broken jaw, his lower lip was torn away, both eyes were severely damaged (resulting in blindness) and the "frontal area of …
Ddasaccident065, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident065, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At around 11:10 the victim got a detector reading and began "prodding and excavating the ground using a bayonet" held in his left hand. A PPM-2 mine detonated. The victim was knocked backward "about" two metres by the blast and was lying partly in an uncleared area. He stood up quickly, leaving his visor which had been "blown away and broken by the blast". The victim received first aid and arrived at the field hospital at 11:20.
Ddasaccident068, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident068, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 10:05 the victim located a PPM-2 at the head of his lane. He called the Team Leader who marked the mine to be destroyed it at the end of the day. The victim and his partner then moved to another lane. When they changed roles (resting/demining) just before 10:30, the victim went back to the lane where he had found the mine. His partner saw that he had taken off his visor and shouted a warning to him. The victim ignored him and started probing a metre from the uncovered mine in the belief that a second mine had …
Ddasaccident069, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident069, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
In a copy of a FAX dated 6th March 1996 to another company (presumed to have been the victims' direct employers) the accident is recorded as "two members of our North Team were seriously injured in a landmine detonation while they were demining the bridge site over the river Lui". It goes on "both men are in a serious but fortunately stable condition. One man has regrettably lost the use of his eyes whilst the prognosis for the other man is slightly better".