Investigation of Federal Bureau of Investigation Bomb-Related Death and Injury Data in the United States between 1988 and 1997

Military Medicine, Jul 2005 by Noji, Eric K, Lee, Catherine Y, Davis, Timothy, Peleg, Kobi

The FBI reported 427 deaths between 1988 and 1997 (Table II and Fig. 2). The greatest number of FBI reported deaths occurred in 1995, where 167 (86.5%) fatalities from the Oklahoma City bombing contributed to the 193 count.7 The least number of deaths were reported in 1989, with 11 cases. The FBI also reported 4,063 bomb-related injuries between 1988 and 1997. There were 9.5 times more injuries than reported deaths. The most injuries were reported in 1993, possibly including the 1,042 injuries from the World Trade Center bombing.8 The second highest number of injuries occurred in 1995, also possibly capturing the 592 injured casualties from the Oklahoma City bombing.7 The least injuries occurred in 1988, and injuries ranged between 3.9 and 27 times greater than deaths during the 10-year period (Fig. 2).

Discussion

The FBI BDC provided information not normally available in public health data. Two types of information were data about the type of explosive material and motivations of the bomber. Information solely from 1997 provided some general insights that can be applied for the years 1988 through 1997. The FBI data showed that 78% of the bombings were explosive and 22% incendiary. Some readers might expect that explosive bombings would cause more deaths than injuries. However, our analyses revealed that there were overall, 9.5 times more injuries than death. By only examining the available 1997 FBI data, it suggests that the majority of the explosive bombings consisted of less powerful low-explosive devices composed of crudely built containers versus those made from much more powerful and lethal high explosives. If explosive bombings in the FBI data consisted of mainly low-explosive material, then this may explain why more injuries than deaths were identified.

Among 4,335 explosive devices reported to the FBI in 1997, black or smokeless powder was used in 44% (1,919) of improvised explosive devices, 24% (1,027) contained chemical or improvised mixtures, and 19% (823) contained pyrotechnic material.6 Similar trends were found when Karmy-Jones et al.9 reported FBI data for the 10-year period from 1980 to 1990. During this time, the authors reported 12,216 bombing incidents. Based on the 1990 data, they inferred that the majority of devices (53%) consisted of pipe bombs containing black powder and smokeless powder.

This is important because it can allow researchers to correlate distinct injury patterns and casualty outcomes that are consistent with specific types of explosions: low-explosive and highexplosive bombings. Low explosives can cause more injuries than death, consisting of penetrating wounds due to shrapnel, broken glass, and debris secondary to the device, as well as burns. For example, a bombing in the Soho District of England in April 1999 involved a criminal explosion of fireworks flash powder placed in a device concealed within a duffle bag, killing three people, causing below-the-knee amputations, and severely burning others.10,11 The explosion of a Molotov cocktail, an incendiary type of bomb, reported by Benmeir et al.,12 and the explosion of a device with an incendiary ammonium nitrate substance reported by Gomez Morell et al.13 and Jimenez-Hernandez et al.14 also document extensive cases of burns. Additionally, Karmy-Jones et al.9 described injuries sustained by two patients who had attempted to construct an explosive device consisting of black powder in the privacy of a home garage. Among their injuries were a closed head injury, facial lacerations, orbital lacerations, and complex hand lacerations.9 These casualty statistics contrast sharply with the World Trade Center Bombing (United States) in 1993, Oklahoma City (United States) in 1995, Beirut Marine Barracks (Lebanon) in 1983, and the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1988, in addition to the Bali bombings in 2002, Riyadh and Moscow bombings in 2003, and the Madrid train bombings in 2004 that all used large amounts of high explosives.7,8,15 These bombings caused a high number of immediate deaths, critical injuries, and more complex and severe multidimensional patterns of physical injury.