Head Injury due to Cracker Blast

Abstract

Abstract Death arising from fireworks is not an uncommon phenomenon in India. Deaths commonly arise during the manufacturing process and improper handling of chemicals for fireworks. Here, we would like to highlight a rare case in which a 12-year-old child sustained a head injury due to a cracker blast, which resulted in a depressed fracture over the vault of her skull. In this paper, we tried to emulate the same pattern of fracture on a human skull bone experimentally using the same type of cracker which caused the injury. This was done to give us an insight as to whether the cracker was powerful enough to produce a fracture and to rule out suspicion of blunt force trauma due to a weapon on the head. The subsequent explosion caused by the blast produced a distinctly similar pattern of fracture in comparison to the fracture observed in our case. The study also highlights the dangers of country-made crackers handled by children.

Keywords

• forensic science
• fireworks
• head injury
• skull
• children.