Disaster victim identification : experience and practice

266 Pages·2011·6.374 MB·English

by  Sue M Black, et al

94122_cover.fhmx 4/25/11 11:04 AM Page 1
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FORENSICS & CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Global Perspectives on
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Experience and Practice •
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Disaster management has become an increasingly global issue, and victim m
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identification is receiving greater attention. By raising awareness through past n
events and experiences, practitioners and policymakers can learn what works, • M
what doesn’t work, and how to avoid future mistakes. Disaster Victim Identification: a Experience and Practice
Experience and Practice presents a selection of key historical incidents in the lle
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United Kingdom and includes candid discussions of potential areas for improvement
in preparedness and future deployment capabilities.
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Each chapter in the book addresses a specific disaster and covers a number of
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main points in relation to the incident. For each event, the book presents data s
such as the manpower available at the time of the disaster, the number of officers a
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involved in the deployment, and their relevant experience at the time. Details
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of the disaster follow, as well as the recovery and identification methods employed, e
the number of fatalities and casualties, and lessons learned. The book also explores r

the short- and long-term effects that the disaster had on the response team and V
the community. Finally, each chapter examines important present-day developments i
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in relation to the event. The book summarizes important aspects of the particular t
disaster in terms of legislative, moral, practical, or other contributions to the field i
m
of mass disaster planning, preparation, and deployment on a wider scale.

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Viewing disaster management from a global perspective, this volume contains
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the combined input of academics, forensic specialists, trainers, and law enforcement
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professionals who focus on actual cases to honestly assess events and provide
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recommendations for improvement. i
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Edited by
94122 n
S. Black • G. Sunderland
L. Hackman • X. Mallett
6000 Broken Sound Parkway, NW
Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487
711 Third Avenue
an informa business New York, NY 10017
www.crcpress.com 2 Park Square, Milton Park w w w. c r c p r e s s . c o m
Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN, UK
Composite
Disaster Victim
Identification
Experience and Practice
A Message From the Series Editor
Disaster victim identification is a global issue. Mass fatality events arise
through both natural and manmade catastrophes, and the individuality of
the characteristics associated with them ensures that each one offers inde-
pendent learning opportunities so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the
past, but learn effectively from our experiences. This UK edition will hope-
fully be the first in an international series whereby each country, or region,
may wish to record the events in which they have experience and to highlight
the learning outcomes from these tragedies. A second volume is currently in
production from Australia and New Zealand, and I would respectfully invite
other international DVI teams to take up the continuation of this series so
that we might construct a global DVI library. I am very happy to make our
experiences in the production of this volume available to others who may
wish to follow, and if I can be of any assistance, please feel free to contact me
on [email protected].
Professor Sue Black
Professor Sue Black
Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification
College of Life Sciences
University of Dundee
Dow Street
Dundee DD1 5EH
Global Perspectives on
Disaster Victim Identification Series
Disaster Victim
Identification
Experience and Practice
Edited by
S. Black • G. Sunderland
L. Hackman • X. Mallett
Boca Raton London New York
CRC Press is an imprint of the
Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
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Table of Contents
Foreword ix
Editors xiii
Contributors xv
Relevant Acronyms xvii
1 Introduction: The DVI Casebook, UK Incidents 1
XANTHÉ MALLETT, LUCINA HACKMAN, AND
SUE BLACK
2 The Aberfan Colliery Disaster, October 21, 1966 9
MARK LYNCH AND SUE BLACK
3 The Brighton Hotel Bombing, October 12, 1984 19
ANDREW BUCHAN
4 Bradford City Football Stadium Fire,
May 11, 1985 31
THOMAS WALSH, NEAL RYLATT, AND
LUCINA HACKMAN
5 Manchester International Airport Fire:
Flight KT28M, August 22, 1985 51
SUZANNE GOODWIN, DAVID WOOD, AND SUE BLACK
6 King’s Cross Underground Fire,
November 18, 1987 61
NICK BRACKEN AND SUE BLACK
7 Piper Alpha Oil and Gas Platform Disaster,
July 6, 1988 77
DEREK HILEY AND SUE BLACK
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viii Table of Contents
8 The Lockerbie Bombing, December 21, 1988 89
GRAEME GALLOWAY AND XANTHÉ MALLETT
9 The Hillsborough Football Stadium Disaster,
April 15, 1989 109
DAVID BARRON AND XANTHÉ MALLETT
10 The Marchioness Riverboat Disaster,
August 20, 1989 127
GRAHAM WALKER AND XANTHÉ MALLETT
11 The Dunblane Primary School Shootings,
March 13, 1996 143
NEIL BROWN
12 The Omagh Bombing, Saturday, August 15, 1998 159
JOHN MIDDLEMISS
13 Rail Incidents 173
GRAHAM WALKER AND XANTHÉ MALLETT
14 Chinese Lorry Deaths, Dover, June 18, 2000 189
STEVE GRIFFITHS, STEVE CORBISHLEY, AND
DAVID WELLER
15 Operation Lund—Morecambe Bay Cockling
Disaster, February 5, 2004 207
STEVE BRUNSKILL AND XANTHÉ MALLETT
16 London Bus and Underground Bombings,
July 7, 2005 223
GRAHAM WALKER AND XANTHÉ MALLETT
Close 239
Foreword
The Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) partnered with
the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), Centre for International
Forensic Assistance (CIFA), National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA),
and UK Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) to provide the advanced mor-
tuary training course for the national UK DVI response capability. The first
course ran in 2007, and the last in 2009 with close to 550 officers trained,
representing each of the national police forces in the country. The United
Kingdom responded to create a coordinated DVI capability in the aftermath
of the Bali bombings, the Southeast Asian tsunami, the London bombings,
and the Sharm-el-Sheikh bombings. Until this time, much of the UK response
relied on the deployment of members of the Metropolitan Police Service, but
it was clear that a more robust resilience was required.
The training course developed and run at Dundee was unique in police
education. It consisted of a series of assessed tasks addressing both theo-
retical knowledge and practical understanding of DVI that culminated in
the award of a postgraduate university degree. The theoretical knowledge
coalesced around a textbook (UK DVI; The Practitioner’s Guide by Black et
al., 2010), which was coauthored by many expert practitioners in the United
Kingdom. This 21-chapter text was converted into an interactive educational
program and housed on Dundee University’s virtual learning environment.
Each chapter would open to students only once they had successfully com-
pleted the test for the previous chapter (i.e., achieved over 70%). At the end of
the 21st chapter, an overall test covered every aspect of the DVI field from an
understanding of the involvement of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
to fingerprinting to forensic odontology. The aim was not to make every offi-
cer into an expert in each field, but to give them sufficient understanding of
the entire process to ensure that they could work in a more meaningful way
with all the other practitioners that make up a team. We are proud to say that
every officer who took the final test passed with over 60% as a final mark.
Each student then proceeded to a week of practical instruction. Officers
all learned how to be scribes, to take photographs and fingerprints, and to
work as part of a mortuary team. The team tasks were assessed, and again we
are proud to say that every team passed the assessment that was overseen by
a UK DVI commander. The dissecting room in CAHID was converted into a
temporary mortuary, and the deceased were processed as if involved in a real
ix