Driving injuries
Driving injuries refer to physical harm resulting from explosions, where the force of the blast propels air pressure or projectiles into the body. These injuries can arise from various sources, including industrial accidents, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters like hurricanes or tornadoes. The severity and type of injuries depend on factors such as the nature of the explosion—high-order or low-order—and whether the explosion occurred in an enclosed or open space. Driving injuries are categorized as primary, secondary, tertiary, and miscellaneous.
Primary injuries involve damage from air pressure, typically affecting organs like the lungs and eardrums. Secondary injuries result from projectiles, while tertiary injuries occur when the blast propels the body itself. Miscellaneous injuries encompass a wide range of conditions, including burns and lung damage from toxic fumes. Specific patterns of injury are often associated with high-order explosions, such as abdominal trauma and "blast lung," which can be fatal if not treated promptly. Understanding these injuries is crucial for forensic scientists and medical professionals to assess the nature and impact of explosive events.
Subject Terms
Driving injuries
DEFINITION: Injuries caused by air pressure or projectiles driven from an explosion.
SIGNIFICANCE: By examining the driving injuries caused by an explosion, forensic scientists can help determine where and how the explosion occurred and whether the explosion was caused by low-order or high-order explosives.
The most common injuries that result from an explosion are injuries caused when the force of the blast drives air pressure or objects, such as pieces of glass, into the body. By determining the type of object that caused such an injury, the material making up the object, the angle at which the object hit the body, and the force with which it entered or hit the body, investigators can help determine where the bomb or other explosive device was placed when it detonated and where and how it was manufactured.
Types of Explosions
Driving injuries can occur with any type of blast or explosion, either natural or human-made. Such injuries are often seen following industrial explosions, such as mining accidents or chemical explosions, and as the result of motor vehicle accidents. Terrorist attacks involving explosions, such as car or bombings, can also result in driving injuries, as can the explosions associated with warfare. Driving injuries may also occur as the result of hurricanes, tornadoes, or fireworks explosions.
Human-made explosions are particularly damaging to the body because most are specifically designed to project objects into the surrounding area, with the goal of causing bodily harm. For example, military ordnance is designed to shatter into shrapnel to cause body damage, and bombs are often filled with metal objects such as nails or glass that are flung out into the surrounding area. Explosions that occur in enclosed places—such as a mine shaft, a building, or a bus—cause higher rates of driving injuries, and more serious injuries and deaths, than do explosions that occur in open areas.
Types of Driving Injuries
The types of driving injuries are generally classified as primary, secondary, tertiary, and miscellaneous, or quaternary. Primary driving injuries are caused by air pressure emitted, or driven, from the explosion. Because they involve air pressure, they are usually limited to those areas of the body containing air or fluid, such as the lungs, eardrums, eyes, and stomach or intestinal tract, which can rupture from the force. These injuries occur with high-order explosives and may include abdominal hemorrhage or perforation, concussion, eye rupture, pulmonary rupture (“blast lung”), and tympanic (eardrum) rupture.
Secondary driving injuries are caused by projectiles or other objects, such as glass or shrapnel, being driven into the body by the force of the explosion. These injuries occur with either high- or low-order explosives and may include blunt trauma injuries (skin is not broken but significant surface and underlying damage is present) and penetrating injuries (an object actually penetrates the skin and enters the body, often in the eye).
Tertiary driving injuries occur when the force of the blast is so strong that the body actually becomes a projectile. The body may be slammed into a standing object or even into other bodies. These injuries occur with high-order explosives and may include amputation, brain injuries (closed or open), and fractures.
The category of injuries termed miscellaneous or quaternary driving injuries encompasses all types of injuries not contained in the first three categories. These may include brain injuries (closed or open), breathing injuries (such as asthma from dust or smoke or lung damage from toxic fumes), burns (from fires caused by the explosion), complications from preexisting conditions (such as heart problems), and crushing injuries (caused by the collapse of buildings or other structures).
Specific Driving Injuries
Certain abdominal, brain, ear, eye, and lung injuries form a pattern specific to driving injuries from a high-order explosion. Abdominal injuries from such an explosion may not be noticeable at first because they occur with no open wounds, but abdominal organs may suffer injuries such as bowel perforation, testicular rupture, abdominal hemorrhage, and organ lacerations. A high-order explosion can also cause concussion even without a direct blow to the head, and rupture of the eardrum may occur with no blow to the ear or head itself.
About 10 percent of survivors of high-order explosions have eye injuries, some of which are significant. These injuries are usually perforations from objects driven into the eye from the force of the blast and are noticeable at the time, but some may not appear or be noticed until days or weeks after the explosion.
“Blast lung” is the most common injury that causes death if an injured person survives the initial explosion. It occurs when air is forced into the lungs, exploding lung tissues and causing bleeding. It produces a very distinctive “butterfly” pattern on a chest X-ray. Symptoms of blast lung are usually obvious immediately after the explosion, but occasionally they do not show up for a few days after the injury.
Bibliography
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