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Lessons Learned:
A Carrier’s Nightmare And How To Prevent It
By Frederick C. Clark, ARM
Vice President
It was a fine, fall afternoon and Bob Hartland was
looking forward to the third of his monthly trips to
Charleston, West Virginia, to pick up a load of trichlorosilane
and deliver it to the plant in Keasby, New Jersey. This
was a three-day, 1050 mile trip of relatively easy highway
driving. Bob had driven for this major chemical company
for over 10 years. However, trichlorosilane was a recent
commodity addition for the Keasby location. He had all
his Haz Mat endorsements and specific triclorosilane
training. On this trip, Bob was going to use a new tractor.
Trichlorosilane is a corrosive liquid and an inhalation
poison. The United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) lists it as an “Extremely Hazardous”
substance. The Department of Transportation (DOT) lists
it as a Guide 156 chemical, toxic and corrosive –
water sensitive. Bob was transporting it in a 6000-gallon
trailer.
Bob was scheduled to be in Charleston between noon
and 1:00 p.m. Tuesday. This meant that he needed to
leave Keasby at 5:00 p.m. Monday. The speed limit in
1989 was 55 MPH. He could plan on an overall average
of about 45 MPH and be legal. He had found a nice little
yard off I-79 in Duck, WV, where he could park the tractor-trailer
and walk to a motel across the street.
On Schedule
Everything went as planned. Bob was pulling into Duck
at 2:45 a.m., ready for an eight-hour rest. His little
spot across the street was available. He locked up the
new tractor and checked in with Louise at the motel.
Bob came on duty 11:30 a.m. Tuesday and delivered the
trailer to the loading rack at 12:30 p.m. He assisted
with the loading of the trichlorosilane for the next
six hours. Bob used his remaining nine hours of duty
time to drive back towards Keasby, New Jersey.
He arrived in Swedesboro, NJ at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday
morning. Once again Bob had found a little out-of-the-way
spot to park the tractor-trailer, not far from a small
motel.
Vanishing Act
Much to Bob’s surprise, when he arrived back
at the parking area, there was no trichlorosilane tractor-trailer
to be found. The unit had disappeared!
Bob notified the safety director, terminal manager,
and authorities. Before the trailer was found, the authorities
issued an all-points alert to find the unit, including
all the New York City bridges and tunnels, suspecting
that this was a terrorist action. Who else would want
a trailer-load of highly toxic material?
Fortunately, all the thieves wanted was the new tractor.
In three hours, the full trailer turned up, parked without
the tractor in Perth Amboy, NJ. The police suspect that
the tractor was loaded into a shipping container bound
for South America.
The subsequent investigation determined that no one
gave in-route security a thought —not the driver,
terminal manager, dispatch, nor the shipping terminal.
Some ‘Security’ Thoughts After
The Incident
- Two drivers would have allowed for continuous movement
of the shipment.
- A better route selection through Pennsylvania would
have allowed the one way trip to be completed in 10
hours.
- There are well-lit “truck stop” motels
with much more secure parking.
- In this case there were also other company terminals
within 20 miles of the “little out of the way”
places, with secure parking space.
- A fifth wheel locking mechanism may have discouraged
disconnecting the unit.
The major disappointment was that the risk was not
identified and then a check list of preventive steps
was not reviewed for appropriate actions to reduce these
risks.
XL Environmental Can Help
XL Environmental suggests that operations, safety and
risk management review all shipments of hazardous materials
to assure that security measures are in place and practiced.
If you need assistance, XL Environmental would be glad
to help. Call us at 800-327-1414.
Frederick Clark has a BS degree in Chemistry and over
30 years of experience in the safety, health and environmental
field. He has gained expertise in many aspects of personal
and fleet safety and loss control management. He serves
the fleet safety needs and distribution-related needs
of clients by providing training, assessments, risk
analyses, and other loss prevention programs.
XL Environmental • Risk Control Division •
520 Eagleview Boulevard, PO Box 636, Exton, PA 19341
• Phone: 800-327-1414 • Fax: 610-458-7285
• xlenvironmental.com
XL Environmental is a division of XL Specialty Insurance
Company.
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