Digger driver dies after hitting WWII bomb

[lied_ohne_worte]

Comments

[anolinde]

And supposedly the detonators in those bombs have now reached the time when they decay on their own

Does this mean that they might start exploding on their own?

[gambitia]

Yes. They become extremely sensitive to vibrations as they degrade, which could cause them to detonate.

[anolinde]

Holy crap. That's terrifying.

[alryssa]

Holy fuck.

[svtstarlight]

We're not that far away either (not close, but not far as they go) and wow. This is scary and reminds me of the American grenade bomb (not quite sure of the exact name of it, but something like that? It was MASSIVE, anyway.) they found in the schoolyard across from our house this past summer while doing renovations. Closed everything down, evacuated everyone, the whole shebang. It totally wouldn't surprise me if these things start going off randomly. We're in the middle of the wine-growing area, and I'm sure they've cleared what they know about, but yeah... I'm sure it's entirely possible there are still bombs around here somewhere.

:( Sad for the driver and his family, especially this time of year.

[lied_ohne_worte]

Indeed, poor people. And the comments - there were a few hours during which they said the identity of the victim wasn't known (I assume so the family didn't learn it through the Blödzeitung camping out in their garden), and soon there were people on Twitter going on about he probably didn't have a Lohnsteuerkarte [meaning he didn't pay taxes; there are many people, often from abroad, working illegally in construction here].

[svtstarlight]

*blinkblink* wtf... Yeah, ok, there are a lot of foreign people here, but seriously? *shakes head* How rude can people get... :/

[grace_om]

That's terrible. I know these turn up periodically in many parts of Europe. Has there been any talk of trying to prevent tragedies like this one by investigating construction sites before starting to dig? Not just metal detectors, but maybe some kind of ultrasound... (I'm grasping for straws, but I think there are techniques archeologist use that can map buried structures/large objects even if if they're pretty decomposed into the soil).

[gambitia]

I started reading articles out of curiosity, and it mentioned they're using American records to determine where bombs were dropped, since US forces took photos whenever they dropped a bomb. They can sometimes determine if a dud didn't go off by the absence of a blast pattern (I think?), but estimate about 1/3 can't be found this way.

It didn't mention searching in other ways, but did mention that the bomb defusal and disposal is extremely costly, so that might be why more proactive solutions haven't been pursued.

[lied_ohne_worte]

Also, the sheer number of bombs is a problem - look at this image from the town of Wesel or this map of London for the sheer density of impacts.

[alryssa]

That is what I call a metric fuckton of bombs.

[apostle_of_eris]

Alfred-Nobel-Straße??

[lied_ohne_worte]

Yes. Some rather bitter irony there.

[wrestlingdog]

Is it bad that my first thought was of the Call the Midwife Christmas special?