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CSIR human effects researcher Tammy Whyte |
Professor BL Meel of the forensic medicine department of the Walter Sisulu University |
An unaccounted-for M26 hand grenade in the former Transkei has led to a study by CSIR human effects researcher Tammy Whyte. Whyte, a biomedical engineer at the CSIR, investigates the injury mechanisms of grenades and other antipersonnel explosives. Whyte and a peer from the Walter Sisulu University have submitted a paper detailing their findings on the gruesome killing of six herd-boys during a single blast 10 years ago, to the South African Medical Journal.
The deadly blast occurred accidentally when the boys were playing with an unexploded grenade. The grenade in question, an M26, is designed to harm through high velocity fragments that it expels, resulting in mutilation of the body. Due to the close proximity of the children to the grenade, the severity of their injuries may have been increased by the heat and overpressure caused by the explosion.
Twenty-one people were killed in the former Transkei, 13 of them children, owing to 13 hand grenade explosions from 1998 to 2007.
"My research centres on human injury criteria," Whyte says, adding, "We need to know exactly how people are injured during explosive events in order to develop improved personal protection." From a medical perspective, understanding the injury mechanisms of explosive events can aid in the treatment of the victim.
According to Whyte, the extent of injuries sustained by the victims were horrific. Autopsy reports revealed that the vital organs of three children who had been closest to the blast haemorrhaged while indications of shock wave injuries were visible to air-containing organs.
Whyte and Professor BL Meel of the forensic medicine department of the Walter Sisulu University have been collaborating the past few months. They found that, according to reports on various grenade incidents, these munition are still in circulation and now used in committing crime.
For this project, Whyte worked with her colleagues Dr Izak Snyman, who conducted ANSYS AUTODYN simulations of an approximation of the pressures produced by an M26 hand grenade, and Duarte Goncalves, a systems engineer and coaching facilitator at the CSIR who provided information on hand grenade incidents reported in the media.
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