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

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.


Ddasaccident575, Hd-Aid Apr 1999

Ddasaccident575, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Two army EOD specialists have been seriously injured, both suffering amputations. [This is the second of those victims. No details of how the accident occurred have been made available. It is inferred that he touched the submunition in order to move it because this was the common feature in other accidents with this munition at this time.]


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.


Ddasaccident574, Hd-Aid Apr 1999

Ddasaccident574, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The rest of us kept walking for another five minutes and then we heard a terrible detonation. Somehow, we knew what it was. The sound was different, much louder; sinister, if I can put it that way. We knew that it was [the Victim]. We ran back and the only thing we could see was one blood-stained boot hanging from a tree. And then we realised that he had been blown to pieces. We had to pick each of the pieces up by ourselves; there was nobody else who could do it. The only part of his body that kept …


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.


Ddasaccident022, Hd-Aid Oct 1998

Ddasaccident022, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred during the manual clearance phase. Victim No.1 was clearing a lane and pulled a trip wire with his detector head, so initiating an OZM-4. The detonation "blew off both upper and lower limbs" and he suffered fragment wounds to his head and chest, killing him instantly. Victim No.2 was hit in the shoulder by a fragment.


Ddasaccident162, Hd-Aid Sep 1998

Ddasaccident162, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim stated that he was prodding to a depth of about 8cm and did not feel the mine before it exploded. He said that normally when the ground was very wet they stopped operations because it was not comfortable to lie down. He maintained that he had been lying on his plastic sheet but was still getting wet and the ground conditions were not safe to work in.


Ddasaccident004, Hd-Aid Sep 1998

Ddasaccident004, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

At 09.15 three deminers were injured when a mine detonated while being handled outside the mined area. Victim No.1 suffered severe hand and minor foot injuries. Victim No.2 suffered minor body and eye injures, and a hearing loss. Victim No.3 suffered a minor facial injury. The injured were taken by road (the report says that it would have taken too long to get official clearance for air evacuation) to Maputo Central hospital by 10:15. Victim No.1 was flown to Zimbabwe at an unspecified time for “follow-up treatment”.


Ddasaccident047, Hd-Aid Sep 1998

Ddasaccident047, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The Technical Advisor heard the explosion and drove towards it. He saw the Survey Officer come out of the bush with the victim over on his shoulders. The victim had lost his left foot. The Technical Advisor administered first aid while the Survey Officer tried to make radio contact with the group's Kuito office. He did not succeed so used a Motorola Handheld radio to speak to another NGO's demining operation in Cunhinga. The team then drove towards Cunhinga and were met by a vehicle from the other group carrying their paramedic. Together with the paramedic the team drove to …


Ddasaccident250, Hd-Aid Sep 1998

Ddasaccident250, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Two dogs were run over the accident site and both signalled positively. The victim started searching with a detector where they had indicated and he got a reading. He marked the spot and started to prod in a "prone" position. As he approached the second marker he paused to remove the loosened earth with his hands. [It is not clear whether he raised himself up to do this.] As he removed the soil a device exploded, amputating his thumb and two fingers on his right hand. The victim stood up after the accident.


Ddasaccident249, Hd-Aid Sep 1998

Ddasaccident249, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that he detected a reading and put his helmet on to prod. He could find nothing but the detector still signalled so he prodded again and found a fragment. The detector still signalled and he was prodding for the third time when the mine detonated at 08:15. He received "minor injuries", his visor was damaged and his bayonet lost. The victim walked unaided to the safe area.