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Ddasaccident028, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred at 12:30 in a minefield laid by the Portuguese in the early 1970s. The mines were Italian AUPS mines, with and without fragmentation jackets. The demining group had been working in the area since 1996 and 234 AUPS mines had been destroyed. "The minefield crosses the road many times as it is linked as an obstacle with the river which is running along the valley. At the accident site, the minefield following the road alignment at a distance of about six metres on a rocky slope of approximately 35 degrees." Clearance of ten metres had occurred at …

Ddasaccident233, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The document stated that the demining group were working in a wooded area known to be mined. The SFOR monitors offered to lend the group protective equipment but they declined the offer. They did accept the offer of prodders. While prodding a deminer detonated a PMA-3.

Ddasaccident103, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was clearing a breaching lane bordered by barbed wire. When the wire got in the way too much, he stopped work to pull it aside. In pulling it aside he stepped outside the cleared area and trod on the mine. The mine was believed to be a PMN (from "found fragments") but there was concern expressed that the mine was "an MS3 (anti-lift device)" at the time. The victim's visor was damaged.

Ddasaccident104, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim returned to his breaching lane after the short break and accidentally walked beyond the area he had cleared before the break, where he stepped on a mine. He may have not marked the end of his work properly. The device was identified as a PMN (from "found fragments").

Ddasaccident105, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim had been a deminer for seven years. It was five months since his last revision course and 35 days since his last leave. The demining group reported that the victim was digging with a pick when suddenly a PMN mine exploded.

Ddasaccident080, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was part of an advance team which was defining the perimeter of a suspected mined area, with the help of a local guide. The victim was putting in metal markers about 3m away from the existing mined-area boundary stakes. At 09:20 the victim stepped on a mine about 8m away from the existing boundary stakes. He suffered " a cracked bone and bruising to his left foot".

Ddasaccident170, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was the vegetation cutter and prodder man. He cleared 50cm of vegetation at the end of the lane and then handed over to his partner, the detector man. The detector signalled so a marker was put down and the detector man returned to the umbrella. The prodder man investigated the source of the signal and then shouted that he had found a mine. He started to excavate around the mine in preparation for placing a TNT charge next to it. There were a lot of roots around the mine but the victim was not aware that there were …

Ddasaccident171, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

A medical report indicated that the accident occurred at 11:50 and the victim was given first aid for 15 minutes. He arrived at Mongkul Borey Provincial Hospital at 12:40. He had suffered a traumatic amputation of his right foot above the ankle, minor fragment wounds along the length of his left leg and superficial wounds on the back of his left hand.

Ddasaccident229, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The team decided that the work had moved away from the direction of the path, so work would start three metres behind the end of the lane and go in a slightly different direction. This was in the area that had been probed, not checked by a dog. The deminers walked to the new start point, then began to return to the change-over point. Victim No.1 was behind Victim No.2 when he stepped on a PMA-2. He suffered a "traumatic amputation" below his right knee. Victim No.2 had "less serious" injuries.

Ddasaccident106, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was clearing inside a collapsed building. The mines were probably laid on the roof, which had fallen in, so may have been in any position in the ground. The mine was identified as a PMN-2 (from "found fragments"). The victim's visor shattered and a photograph showed jagged fractures and little evidence of blast impact. [This damage implies a twisting force on a brittle plastic, indicating that the visor was probably raised, so explaining the facial injuries.] The deminer's pick was also damaged.

Ddasaccident059, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

At 11:10 he initiated the device while kneeling on the ground "carrying out demining". He had "obviously not found" the device when he had cleared the area himself "some minutes earlier". The mine was "very old and rusty which probably caused the malfunction of the mine". "Metal fragments at the scene confirm that the metal in the mine was almost completely corrugated" [presumably the word "corroded" was intended]. The deminer had been working with the "Ebex 420SI" detector [Ebinger] and either found metal near the mine and did not recheck after removing it, or did not calibrate his detector properly. …

Ddasaccident029, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause is listed as a "Management/control inadequacy" because it seems that the group's SOPs allowed the victim to be too close to detonations on too many occasions and so those responsible for devising the SOPs and training were at fault.

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 …

Ddasaccident172, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as a "Field control inadequacy" because the victim was apparently in breach of SOPs (habitually) but had not been disciplined or appropriately corrected.

Ddasaccident107, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim got a reading on a "hand grenade or its wire" and his partner came to investigate the reading with a long handled shovel. When he started to "cut/remove the bushes, safety pin of the hand grenade got out". The deminer ran away and after a few seconds the grenade exploded. The device was identified as a hand grenade from "found fragments".

Ddasaccident173, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred at a site with "laterite contaminated soil" and several strong signals were found with the detector. The detector man informed his colleague and was making his way back to the rest area when there was an explosion.

Ddasaccident108, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was injured when a farmer drove a tractor into an uncleared area close to where he was working. The deminer went to warn the tractor driver when the tractor ran over a PMN (identified from "found fragments") and the deminer suffered small facial and left eye injuries.

Ddasaccident109, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was walking in an area that had been cleared three days previously by his own party as he made his way from the minefield at the end of the working day. He trod on a PMN mine that had been missed [presumably identified by inference]. A photograph showed a visor, which had been held in the victim's hand and had shattered. The remnants of the victim's boot were also shown.

Ddasaccident110, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim had found bullets before and so impatiently used his pick vertically to investigate directly onto a detector reading. He was squatting when it occurred and had his visor raised. The deminer's pick was destroyed and his visor slightly damaged. They claim to have identified the mine as a PMN from "found fragments".

Ddasaccident111, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The demining group stated that the Section Leader was carrying a UXO fuze (BM 21 rocket fuze) for disposal when he dropped it and it went off. Three other victims were close by.

Ddasaccident112, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was pulling a wire obstacle out of the way when he accidentally stepped into an uncleared area and trod on a PMN [presumably identified by inference].

Ddasaccident113, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the room being worked in had been cleared by the back-hoe but it had not gone deep enough to uncover the mine. Victim No.1 was using the detector and got a signal but he thought it was a fragment because the back-hoe had cleared the area, so he investigated it by using the pick directly onto the reading. The mine was identified as a PMN [presumably by inference]. The victim's pick was “destroyed” and his visor damaged.

Ddasaccident114, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was squatting to prod with a bayonet and applied too much pressure. He used the presence of bamboo to explain why he squatted to prod. The mine was identified as a PMN from "found fragments". His visor was shattered in the accident and his bayonet was "lost".

Task 1c3 Humanitarian Demining Requirement Analysis Final Report, Cisr

Global CWD Repository

The Humanitarian Demining Information Center (HDIC) at James Madison University is developing a plan for identifying, analyzing, enhancing, and disseminating electronic and hard copy information relating to humanitarian demining. The first step toward realizing this objective was identifying the information needs, information availability and optimal methods for organizing and delivering information to the humanitarian demining community.

Broadly conceived, the humanitarian demining community consists of ten components.

• U.S. government agencies that have as part of their mission the development of programs for humanitarian demining in selected countries • volunteer organizations that are directly involved in the task of humanitarian demining …

Ddasaccident174, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was told to get a marking stick by his supervisor. While he was doing so, he stood on the "booster" of a PMN-2 that had been "destroyed" on 20th December 1996. The "booster" had lain hidden in a clump of grass 2m (or 4m on an attached sketch-map) from where the mine was "destroyed". The "booster" left a crater of 10cm diameter x 5cm deep.

Ddasaccident175, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The demining team were clearing land so that an NGO could build a road. There was a deserted house at the site. The area was densely vegetated and strewn with a large number of fragments. Victim No.1 was a detector man. His partner cleared some vegetation and then returned to the rest area. Victim No.1 tested the detector a second time and went to sweep the area.

Ddasaccident030, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

A director of the demining company was interviewed about this accident on 15th December 1998. From memory he reported that the victim had been clearing a mine-belt at a village. The victim was a deminer and had just investigated a detector reading and found a fragment when the accident occurred. Without rechecking the area with his detector, he advanced and stepped on a Gyata-64. His foot was blown off but he had no other significant injuries.

Ddasaccident061, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators were unable to approach the accident site when they visited on 2nd December 1996. They returned on 5th December when the area had been re-cleared. Their report stated that the demining group were working on two sites, with 18 men at one site and seven men working at the other. Both came under an expatriate supervisor who was at the larger site 18k away). The track being cleared ran along the side of "an old railway embankment". It was described as "distinct" but "overgrown with sparse vegetation". [A photograph showed stubs of coarse grass in the path and …

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

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 …