Potential disaster of 'acid cocktail' tankers
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"ON motorways in Worcestershire, at least eight incidents involving chemicals could have had disastrous consequences if Dame Fortune had not smiled until the incidents were brought under control." Mr S. Stapleton, divisional surveyor of Hereford and Worcester County Council, who wrote these words in Road Tar, the journal of the British Tar Industry Association, is the latest public official to draw attention to the inadequate labelling of dangerous loads. He also questions the training which
many tanker operating firms give to their drivers.
"One load," wrote Mr Stapleton, "consisting of an unknown and unlabelled cocktail of several acids, nearly brought disaster to the M5 in Worcestershire when interaction between the various acids and container caused severe chemical reaction, overheating and fuming... , The tanker was eventually driven at great risk, by a fireman, to a nearby quarry, where it was emptied under strict supervision by the county analyst and fire brigade. "The possibility and potential damaging power of such a tanker exploding is worrying, particularly when one considers that it may happen on a motorway viaduct over a city, within the city itself, or inside an underpass or tunnel."
Mr Stapleton feels that governments should introduce some rational, international form of marking and control and that members of the chemical industry should pursue driver training and provision of emergency services, before a serious accident occurs. He looks for a Bill being produced to cover the transit of hazardous loads, similar to the recent Health and Safety at Work Bill currently before Parliament.
Mr Stapleton says the driver of a tanker full of cresylic acid, damaged in an accident on the motorway near Worcester, did not even realize that the, substance was dangerous. He told the police he had no training, did not know what to do in cases of emergency, and was relying on the police to get him out of trouble.