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Full-Text Articles in Public Policy
Ddasaccident205, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident205, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On Wednesday 04 April 2001 at 1025 hours, [Demining group] deminer [the Victim] accidentally detonated an R2M2 anti-personnel landmine whilst working in minefield H186 (Fazenda Usoque) approximately 12 km north of Huambo. He escaped “virtually unscathed”.
Ddasaccident303, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident303, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On the 30th October 2000, an Anti Personnel Mine, Type R2M2, detonated app 3,5m in front of [the victim] without obvious reason.
Ddasaccident302, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident302, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On 5 October at 12:55, [the victim] was carrying out normal demining duties with complete PPE on. He was clearing in the Cordon Sanitaire when a mine suspected to R2M2 model detonated on its own 2,5 metres in front of him. At that particular time [the victim] was in a kneeling position excavating to try and locate another mine.
Ddasaccident301, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident301, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 10:50 on 11 Aug 2000, [the victim – name withheld by group manager] detonated a mine whilst conducting clearance in the Cordon Sanitaire Minefield at UTM 0380797 8194039 in Mukumbura Communal lands.
Ddasaccident300, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident300, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The deminer identified the reading within the confirmed row of mines. The deminer acted on this reading using excavation procedures. The mines destroyed and marked within the first row were R2M2. The predominate mine in this area of the Cordon is R2M2. The deminer stated he was excavating a reading when the mine detonated. There was physical evidence of excavation and water being used.
Ddasaccident297, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident297, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On 22 April 2000, the Deminer was conducting clearance activities in the CS [Cordon Sanitaire] along the first row mines. As he was working an R2M2 approximately 2m in front of him detonated without any external influences.
Ddasaccident298, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident298, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At the time of the accident [the] deminer had identified a reading within a row of mines in the Cordon Sanitaire Minefield. Ground conditions were favourable with relatively level ground and not very hard but with small loose stones. The deminer was wearing full PPE including gloves in both hands for arm protection. After identifying a reading, the deminer pinpointed and started excavating. From his own statement, he had already located the mine and was further exposing it when it went off. He further states that a rock rolled back into the hole he was excavating and landed on a …
Ddasaccident276, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident276, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The report stated that at “12:50 on 15 April 2000, [the victim] detonated a mine whilst conducting clearance in the Cordon Sanitaire Minefield”. When the casualty was recovered from the minefield and tended by the paramedic, it was found that he was conscious and had sustained only minor injuries.” The victim arrived at the site medical unit at 13:05 and the field doctor arrived “immediately afterwards”. The victim sustained superficial burns to his left “arm and forearm. A minor contusion also developed on his left wrist.” [Apparently, he was not taken to a hospital.]
Ddasaccident270, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident270, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim initiated a mine at 13:10 while he was prodding to investigate a detector reading. His visor and apron "absorbed the blast", with the visor being torn off and landing in an uncleared area 8m away. The prodder had not been found at the time the report was written [it was found and photographed later].
Ddasaccident275, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident275, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was continuing the breach begun by the earlier victim. He worked a further ten metres and checked the lane with his detector as he walked back towards the safe area. As he passed the site of the earlier accident, he got a slight detector reading and began to investigate with his prod. The mine detonated.
Ddasaccident296, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident296, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Wearing his visor and armour apron, the victim swept the ground with his detector and noticed no signal. He then got up to cut vegetation and, at 0825 hours, detonated an R2M2 mine by stepping on it. “He sustained traumatic high velocity blast amputation of the right foot with sparing of the ipsilateral ankle joint. He also sustained first degree burns to the right arm”. The site supervisor corrected this to “part of” his right foot being amputated.
Ddasaccident258, Hd-Aid
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
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".
Ddasaccident257, Hd-Aid
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Ddasaccident155, Hd-Aid
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
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 …
Ddasaccident075, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident075, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was breaching the minefield from the Rhodesian side in order to retrieve sensitive equipment left on the other side by the Rhodesian Airforce. He was crouching down using an 18-inch ".303" bayonet to prod the ground in order to find safe places to put his feet. When he was 10-15m inside the minefield he prodded onto a R2M2 mine that exploded. The victim believed that rainwater had caused the mine to flip onto its side at right angles to its normal position.