CONTENT: Any time a hazardous material leaks or spills from a package, tank or other container you are hauling, you must report the release immediately to your employer. Your employer, in turn, must report the incident to the DOT. Your employer makes the report on the Hazardous Materials Incident Report shown in Part IV of this workbook. This is the DOT'S own form. Tear one out now and look it over. In a moment, you'll be using it to report a sample hazardous materials incident.
In this exercise, you will be filling out the form. On the job, someone else will probably fill it out unless you are an owner-operator. Usually, the form will be filled out by the company's safety individual, but the trucking company may authorize a different person to complete and mail in the form. As you might have guessed, owner-operators have to fill out the form for themselves.
As soon as the person has completed the form, he or she sends it in. The form must be mailed to a specified state agency such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Highway Patrol or State Police, or the Department of Public Safety within 15 days of the incident. (Refer to the Instructional Exercise in Chapter 19 of this workbook for help in finding out where to send the form.) If the vehicle was hauling intrastate, that is the only place you need to mail the form: the specified state agency. If you were traveling interstate, however, you must also send it to the Federal DOT.
If the incident caused an injury or death, the Coast Guard National Response Center must also be notified immediately by telephone. DO: Read the sample hazardous materials incident that follows. Then, fill in one copy of the Hazardous Materials Incident Report with the information which you have taken from the written explanation below.
HINTS: Freight Forwarder means a trucking company. You probably could figure that out for yourself, but sometimes it helps to be sure. Under "Remarks," on the back of the form, write in a brief description of what caused the accident or incident; describe the spill, leak or other dangerous incident; tell who you (as Bob Griggs) notified and what steps you took to solve the immediate problem. With a little thought, you can probably figure out how to complete the rest of the form yourself.
Hazardous Materials Incident - Bob Griggs, Driver; Bob Griggs is a driver for Explosive Transport. On October 14th, he was traveling west on Interstate 10, carrying gunpowder for Diamond Powder Company, Bluerock Road, 900 S.W., Tucson, Arizona, 80520. The consignee was Walter Mining and Development Company, 10500 Uric Street, Cascade, Washington, 87541. Bob was to park at a safe haven (a spot authorized by the police department) at the outskirts of Yuma, AZ.
About five miles east of Yuma, his trailer lurched to the right side in the rear. This caught him by surprise. He couldn't figure out what was wrong because he had just checked his tires an hour previously, at 10:30 p.m., and everything had looked okay. Bob guided the rig off the road as easily as possible. The trailer was hopping around in the back, but he made it and got clear of the roadway.
At first, Bob couldn't figure out what had happened. He was especially confused since he had a new three-axle tractor: A KW with a 350
Cummins and a 10-speed Roadranger. His trailer, a 45-foot van, was three years old and it was in good shape too.
When Bob went back to investigate, he found that the whole set of rear duals was missing off one of the two axles, and the axle was just touching the ground. What had happened to the duals? He headed back down the road. About 500 yards back, just off the road, were his duals, sitting there intact. He started rolling the duals back to the rig.
It was only then that he remembered that he had gunpowder in the load, near the right-rear corner. He hurried back to the rig and checked the shipping papers which Diamond Powder Company had given him. He found out the following information about the shipment: The gunpowder (Trade Name: Diamite - A) was Hazardous Material No. A-19297 packed in cylinders. Its classification was "black powder." There were 40 cylinders altogether, each with 50 lbs. Two of them had tipped over and gunpowder had spilled out. The DOT spec numbers were 2A, and the packages were also marked 2A.90. The registration number of the packaging manufacturer was listed as D1556634. The DOT labels were carded. No special permit number was required for the load.
Bob didn't see another rig in sight, so he got on his squeak box, and tried to raise another trucker. In about 3 minutes, he gave up on Channel 18-19, and went to the emergency Channel 9. After about a minute, he located a bear in the area, about five miles west of his location. He requested a fire truck and a wrecker because of the cargo he was carrying. He gave them his location, and said he would stand by.
The police and fire department both arrived in 15 minutes, and that made him feel more secure. Bob checked the trailer axle. The bearing was gone as well as the seals and retaining nut, and the end of the axle was pretty well chewed up from hitting the pavement. He would have to get another trailer. The police found a trailer rental yard, got the owner out, and arranged for Bob to pick up the trailer and return to transfer the load.
From the time he went down and had reloaded with the help of some other truckers and the fire department, Bob hadn't lost more than 8 hours. However, he was out of time on his log, so he requested a place to park and climbed into his sleeper for some rest.
