NTSB Perspectives on the Regulation of Bulk Loading and Unloading Operations in the Transportation of Hazardous Materials: An Interview With Robert Chipkovitz, Director of the Office of Railroad, Pipeline, and Hazardous Materials Investigations

摘要

National Transportation Safety Board's Director of the Office of Railroad, Pipeline, and Hazardous Materials Investigations, Robert Chipkovitz, lends his perspectives on bulk loading and unloading regulations as they pertain to the transportation of hazardous materials. This interview comes in the wake of NTSB's challenge of PHMSA's bulk loading and unloading regulations, modified in HM-223, wherein the Board asserted that current regulations were far from adequate. An analysis of PHMSA incident data by our own Frits Wybenga ("Analysis of Hazmat Incident..." found in the March/April 2007 issue of HMP&S) also lends the conclusion that the majority of injuries and fatalities incurred during the transportation of hazardous materials occurred during the loading and unloading procedure. Mr. Chipkevitch discusses the status of applicable regulation and changes to the requirements that he would like to see.