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Full-Text Articles in Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration

Ddasaccident349, Hd-Aid Jul 1999

Ddasaccident349, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred at a distance of 18.2m from the road – datum line, in the “cleared” area where the vegetation was very thoroughly removed by vertical cutting – using an axe. Accident happened when the sign for the break was given, while the deminers were leaving the minefield towards the Control point. The cause of the accident is the PROM –1 mine activated with pressure.


Ddasaccident312, Hd-Aid Jun 1999

Ddasaccident312, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Work on the left lane was obstructed by a tree so the victim cleared 1x1m boxes from the side of the right lane. At 10:45, the victim was nearing completion of the 3rd box, and was just standing up to remove some grass that he had cut, when an unplanned explosion took place at his feet. It transpired that he had inadvertently detonated an explosive device.


Ddasaccident206, Hd-Aid Jun 1999

Ddasaccident206, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim "was preparing a mine for demolition in the middle of the second working lane" when then the accident occurred at 11:30. He had a trowel and shears with him at the time of the accident. The handle of the trowel "was separated horizontally and was burned." A prodder was found to the right of the crater. He "received many injuries to the head, to both legs and arms". He showed no sign of life when reached by other deminers.


Ddasaccident258, Hd-Aid Jun 1999

Ddasaccident258, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators concluded that the victim was working correctly and was excavating a detector reading rather than prodding because of "high gravel content" in the ground. They found that "sufficient water was on site and used". They believed that the mine may have been in a tilted position. They added that the victim "was protected from serious injury by wearing protective clothing correctly".


Ddasaccident259, Hd-Aid Jun 1999

Ddasaccident259, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators concluded that the victim was working correctly and was excavating a detector reading. They found that his visor and apron were "covered with mud" and his deformed trowel was found lying about a metre from the detonation. The soil around the hole was still wet, showing that the victim has used enough water to soften the ground. Beneath the point of detonation was "a deep burrow, probably dug by mice". "Detonation signs" were only visible on one side of the "blast hole".


Ddasaccident207, Hd-Aid Jun 1999

Ddasaccident207, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as a "Management/control inadequacy" because the system of sending out Level 1 survey teams without protection is inherently and obviously dangerous. To expect the surveyors to always be able to correctly assess an area prior to entering it implies a lack of knowledge and/or thought on the part of those who devised the system. The parameters of survey seem to have been confused, with inadequate SOPs and the surveyors having no clear idea of the limitations of their work. With the work ill defined, the training cannot have been appropriate, so the …


Ddasaccident319, Hd-Aid May 1999

Ddasaccident319, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred in a mined area surrounding a former Frelimo/Zimbabwean soldier’s camp. The demining team was using a combination of manual and MDD techniques. At 07:50, victim No.1, the Team Leader, stepped on the mine and his right foot was amputated.


Ddasaccident257, Hd-Aid May 1999

Ddasaccident257, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators concluded that the victim was carrying out an excavation drill correctly. A high "gravel" content in the soil made excavation the correct drill to use. His blast apron was covered with mud, which was taken as proof that he was using water to soften the ground. The investigators thought it likely that the mine was unusually sensitive due to having spent "more than 20 years in the ground". They thought it possible that the spring firing mechanism was already partly depressed.


Ddasaccident261, Hd-Aid May 1999

Ddasaccident261, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was carrying out a normal excavation drill at 10:45 when a mine, "suspected R2M2…functioned" and he suffered a slight cut and some bruising to his left hand.


Ddasaccident120, Hd-Aid May 1999

Ddasaccident120, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was the one of a two-man team and was supposed to be "controlling" his partner who was in the clearance lane. The victim claimed that he had noticed an object "that he did not recognise" and prodded it with a piece of wire when it exploded. He sustained "lacerations and some light fragment damage to his hands… deep lacerations and damage to his left thumb and forefinger and lighter lacerations to his right middle finger".


Ddasaccident121, Hd-Aid May 1999

Ddasaccident121, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was a Team Leader whose duties included disarming R2M2 mines. At 06:27 the Victim was "neutralising" an R2M2 mine by removing its booster charge [unscrewed from below] when the mine detonated. Another Team Leader witnessed the event and reported that the Victim was wearing his protective equipment (visor and apron) properly.


Ddasaccident010, Hd-Aid Apr 1999

Ddasaccident010, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim had been investigating a detector reading (at around 11:00) with his prodder when a mine [identified as an R2M2 by inference] detonated. He had bruised (sprained) his thumb. He had no other injury.


Ddasaccident011, Hd-Aid Apr 1999

Ddasaccident011, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The demining group were clearing the Zimbabwe/Mozambique border minefields. The detector used was a Vallon with a folding handle. Deminers reported being poorly paid at the time and morale was low. The site management was intensely unpopular and seen as having little relevant background in humanitarian demining.


Ddasaccident334, Hd-Aid Apr 1999

Ddasaccident334, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The Victim was working in a breaching party making a lane to the top of the hill. He had been working for 20 minutes when he registered a detector reading. He then either moved to mark the reading and stood on the mine or marked the reading and stepped back, stepping on the mine.


Ddasaccident208, Hd-Aid Apr 1999

Ddasaccident208, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

At 16:10 the victim changed roles with his partner and began work. His partner withdrew 30 metres. His partner saw him work with the Schiebel An 19/2 detector, put it down and kneel to prod. Then he put the prodder aside. About 30 seconds later, at 16:20 [ten minutes before work was to stop at 16:30], the victim initiated a PROM-1 mine which "appears to have exploded directly next to his head and chest". He had not told his partner that he had found a mine.


Ddasaccident155, Hd-Aid Mar 1999

Ddasaccident155, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Both reports agreed that the victim had located a signal with a Vallon detector and was investigating it with his prodder when the mine detonated at 08:05. The victim walked unaided to the base line where he was treated first by the team medic and then by the site doctor.


Ddasaccident186, Hd-Aid Mar 1999

Ddasaccident186, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The report stated that at the time of the accident there were three team leaders and the driver in the cab and an unspecified number of deminers in the back. On arriving at the site the driver inquired about the mines and subsequently pressed the top of one as it was being held by a Team Leader, making the detonator explode. The victim sustained an injury to the flesh of the mid-finger of his right hand. [However, the victim was the driver and as the blast emanated from the bottom of the mine it seems likely that he held it …


Ddasaccident209, Hd-Aid Mar 1999

Ddasaccident209, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The team arrived in the area at 10:45. The man supposed to guide them did not arrive, but another person substituted. They drove along an unsurfaced track, then parked and walked on until they could see the remaining minefield marking of a previously cleared area on the other side of the track. They had walked about 15m off the track towards the suspect area before the victim (who was the Team Leader and third in line) stepped on a mine.


Ddasaccident159, Hd-Aid Dec 1998

Ddasaccident159, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

At the time of the accident, Victim No.1 was excavating a detector reading. Victim No.2 was the detector man and had paused on his return to the safe area because he felt unwell and so had not left the vicinity when the mine initiated. Victim No.1 was excavating with a "trowel" [a locally made excavating tool] (after prodding) when (at 10:40) he initiated a mine. He had been a deminer for 13 months.


Ddasaccident165, Hd-Aid Dec 1998

Ddasaccident165, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On the morning of the accident the victim was working as a prodder man on an upward incline of 30o. The detector man got a reading, marked it and called to the victim to investigate. As the victim was excavating he saw a white metal tube about the size of a finger but did not recognise what it was. He continued to prod around it and he initiated the mine with the tip of his prodder


Ddasaccident160, Hd-Aid Nov 1998

Ddasaccident160, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The working area was on the Cambodian mid-level (as opposed to flood plain and mountainous area) so there was a lot of bamboo. The victim was the prodder man and was called by his partner to investigate the source of a detector reading near some bamboo. The victim knelt on the ground and prodded the area for a short time. At 11:05 he initiated a mine and fell back into the cleared area.


Ddasaccident320, Hd-Aid Nov 1998

Ddasaccident320, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

A Trainee Supervisor was trying to explain the operation of the Type-72a mine to some of his colleagues in a “self initiated” lecture. The Trainee Supervisor “tried to force open the mine whilst explaining the function mechanism” and “initiated the detonator”, suffering a minor injury to one finger.


Ddasaccident268, Hd-Aid Nov 1998

Ddasaccident268, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

"There are clear hints that he entered the uncleared area to a length of 5.3m along the tape of the left hand side. He entered also the area where should be the next lane. The distance from the left marking (tape) to the accident place is 2.15m. The accident place could not be reached by detector from the last marked safe place in the clearance lane as well as from the cleared area. After the explosion the legs of the injured person were laying in the uncleared area. His right neighbour cleared the area around the body to have access …


Ddasaccident015, Hd-Aid Nov 1998

Ddasaccident015, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators visited the site on 17/18th November 1998. The accident occurred near the base of one of 34 pylons being cleared of defensive mines in a "Survey/UXO" task that started on 6th June 1998. Each tower was protected by "up to 45 mines". By the date of the accident the team had found and destroyed a total of 421 M969 mines around 17 of the pylons (8-10 around each "leg"). Work was under way at three pylons. The soil had "a high laterite" content so the clearance was being conducted by excavating using an enxada [a hoe like a …


Ddasaccident016, Hd-Aid Nov 1998

Ddasaccident016, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The nurse described this accident saying that a deminer was leaning forward to cut vegetation and put his foot on a mine. He suffered "traumatic chest injuries" when the front of his foot was driven into his chest. He died in the field before evacuation. The nurse claimed that an autopsy report was with the Country MAC [no one there knew of it] and that the mine was a Gyata-64 (AP blast, 210g TNT). Apparently the accident occurred when the victim was following a “mine-clearance machine” [unspecified].


Ddasaccident253, Hd-Aid Oct 1998

Ddasaccident253, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was investigating a detector reading wearing his helmet and in a squatting position as he and his partner cleared an uphill breach. He was prodding with his bayonet when the mine detonated at 10:45. The investigators decided that "he was not wearing his helmet properly".


Ddasaccident046, Hd-Aid Oct 1998

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 …


Ddasaccident210, Hd-Aid Oct 1998

Ddasaccident210, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The demining group were ready to start work at 08:40 but bad weather prevented work until 11:30 when the teams deployed. The two victims left the rest area but "no witness was able to provide a clear indication of the[ir] intentions". It was thought likely that they had gone to carry out a reconnaissance of the area where new grids would be made for the dog runs. They appear to have walked directly to the accident site, stepped deliberately over the edge of lane markings and initiated the mine. Neither victim was wearing protective clothing.


Ddasaccident251, Hd-Aid Oct 1998

Ddasaccident251, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim and his partner were clearing a lane into the edge of a canal that was partly filled by a collapsed wall. There was a sheet of metal partly buried in the canal so the victim started to clear the earth away from it with a pick "layer by layer". At 08:45 he detonated a mine with the pick and sustained injuries to his eyes and hands.


Ddasaccident161, Hd-Aid Oct 1998

Ddasaccident161, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim said that he did not find anything at the first marker, and then failed to find anything at the second marker with his prodder. He called his partner to check with the detector again and the reading was confirmed. He then started excavating with his "trowel" when the mine exploded. He estimated that the mine was buried to a depth of 4cm, but did not see it prior to the explosion.