Add driving while lighting an explosive to the list of things that are safety no-no’s.
That is what police say a 28-year-old man was doing Sunday night near 12th Street and Carter Boulevard in northeast Omaha. The man was injured about 10:45 p.m. when he tried to light a pipe bomb in the car he was driving, police said.
The man was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center with what Omaha police say are extensive injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening. The man was listed in fair condition late Monday afternoon.
OPD’s bomb squad was called out to ensure no secondary devices were found in the vehicle. Police have not released the man’s name. The incident is under investigation.
The man injured Sunday night was one of three who suffered serious injuries due to fireworks or explosives.
Paul Baltes, a spokesman with the Nebraska Medical Center, said a teenager who lost an eye was transferred from a hospital in central Nebraska. Also, a child was treated for shrapnel injuries to the head.
Baltes said the hospital handled a total of seven fireworks-related injuries over the weekend.
At Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, five children were treated since last week. Four of those injuries happened over the weekend and all of the children were treated and released, said Cherie Lytle, a hospital spokeswoman.
Four of the injured children were under the age of 5, Lytle said, and some will need follow-up care. Three of the children had injuries to or near an eye, and one child suffered a burn when fireworks that were supposed to shoot into the air instead hit the child in the leg.
The hospital treated four fireworks injuries over last year’s holiday and 11 in 2008, Lytle said.
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