Ban on certain pyrotechnics back in force

As of Friday, the ban on the use of category F2 and F3 of pyrotechnics is once again in force. However, for too many the ban comes too little too late as a number of injuries were reported during the holiday season.

The Head of the Anti-Explosives Service of the Police Directorate, Tomislav Vukoja, noted on Friday that when compared to last year, the data is not encouraging: "Last year we had thirteen serious and twenty minor injuries. Now we have thirteen serious injuries and eighteen minor injuries, but the campaign isn't over, it lasts until January 8th and unfortunately the chances are high that more injuries will happen. More and more we see that parents are the problem, as they buy fireworks and give them to their children. Even the smallest firecracker can be dangerous, and children don't know how to handle fireworks and end up injuring themselves or someone else."

Serious injuries were reported throughout the country. Perhaps the most disturbing injury reported this holiday season was that of an adult man in Nova Gradiška handing a young child a firecracker who then threw it into the jacket of a six year old boy, who sustained serious injuries. In the coastal city of Zadar a 17-year-old sustained a serious injury to his hand, while an eight-year-old child is being treated for injuries to his eyes. The Head of the Zadar Police Operational and Communication Center, Sandra Poljak Jurinčić: "In Zadar we had two separate events on New Year's Eve, in which two minor’s sustained serious physical injuries precisely from the use of illegal pyrotechnics. All of the facts and circumstances surrounding how the two injuries occurred are still being determined, and both minors are still in hospital."

The Zadar police say that along with enforcing hefty fines, they also confiscated 870 pieces of banned pyrotechnics during the holiday season.

Source: HRT