Hazardous material/waste transportation safety -- its effect on the environment
- National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
The purpose of hazardous material/waste transportation accident investigations are to identify technical, operational, and human factor issues of safety that contributed to an accident. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is tasked with accident investigations in the following modes of transportation: aviation, highway, railroad, marine, and pipeline. Hazardous materials and wastes are transported in every mode within the US Transportation system, and account for more than 500,000 shipments per year. The NTSB selects specific accidents to investigate based on the release of hazardous material and its threat to public safety, if fatalities occurred, or if the accident caused a major disruption to the surrounding community. The NTSB also investigates accidents involving hazardous materials that could provide further evidence of a need for safety improvements. The NTSB makes safety recommendations for improving the safe transport of hazardous materials to several agencies of the US Department of Transportation, including the Research and Special Programs Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and the US Coast Guard. In addition, the NTSB makes safety recommendations to industry and other private organizations. Safety recommendations are made as the result of accident investigations and are the most important product of the NTSB. Safety recommendations, when implemented, can reduce accidents and improve the US transportation system. The discussion of the investigations, research, container designs, and safety recommendations described in this paper, is to provide the reader with a basic understanding of issues related to the current transportation of hazardous materials in the United States, and what the possibilities will be in the future when dealing with issues that can have a detrimental effect on the environment.
- OSTI ID:
- 679392
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980632--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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