200 litres of acid into a table drain, driver alone at dusk
7:40 pm on a two-lane highway 40 km from the nearest town. A 12 t rigid curtain-sider is carrying twelve 1,000 L IBCs of UN 3264 CORROSIVE LIQUID, ACIDIC, INORGANIC, N.O.S. (dilute sulphuric acid, 20%), Class 8, PG III - a placard load. The driver brakes hard for a kangaroo; a strap slips, one IBC topples, and its valve cracks. Roughly 200 L of acid runs across the shoulder and into a table drain. Light rain is falling and the drain runs to a creek about 300 m away. Traffic is passing at 100 km/h, and there is a farmhouse 200 m upwind. The truck carries a spill kit (absorbent granules, a shovel, a 20 L drum of soda ash, PPE), two 9 kg dry powder extinguishers and warning triangles. The driver's phone shows one bar of signal. The IBC that fell is lying on its side, still about half full, and the driver is alone.
1. Set out the driver's actions for the first ten minutes, in order, with the reasoning for the sequence.
Read the worked answer
Order matters. The driver is alone, so personal safety and warning others come before containment.
1. Protect the scene. Stop, hazard lights on, park brake on. Set warning triangles fore and aft on the upwind side and get the vehicle as far off the carriageway as it will safely go. Do not walk through the spill to do any of this - traffic at 100 km/h is the most immediate hazard.
2. Protect himself. Acid is now splash and mist. Get the PPE out of the spill kit - goggles or face shield, gloves, boots, apron - before going anywhere near the leak.
3. Keep others out. Stay upwind and uphill. Keep bystanders and other traffic away. Do not leave the scene to knock on the farmhouse door: at 200 m upwind of a liquid spill they are not the priority, and abandoning the scene removes the only person who can warn traffic.
4. Stop the source only if it is safe and simple. A half-full 1,000 L IBC is over 500 kg. Closing a valve or rolling the IBC so the valve faces up may be possible with the truck and a bar; righting a half-tonne IBC by hand is not. If it cannot be done safely, leave it and contain.
5. Contain, do not disperse. Build a bund of granules and soil across the drain. Do not hose the acid - water spreads it into the drain and towards the creek.
6. Call 000 with the UN number, class and the HAZCHEM code from the vehicle's placard, then call the company's dangerous goods contact. Photograph the leak after the scene is protected, not before.
2. The drain runs to a creek 300 m away. What are the driver's environmental obligations, who must be notified, and what records should be kept?
Read the worked answer
Containment at the drain comes first. A 200 L acid spill reaching a creek is a pollution incident. The highest-value action available to the driver in the first ten minutes is to block the table drain - granules, soil, sandbags, absorbent - at the last point before it leaves the shoulder. Once it is in the creek, the environmental harm and the clean-up cost both jump by orders of magnitude.
Notification.
- 000 - the fire service carries the HAZCHEM response and the equipment.
- The prime contractor immediately, and the consignor, who knows the product and may have neutralising advice and a clean-up contractor.
- The state environmental regulator, as soon as practicable, with a written report to follow - a spill to the environment is a notifiable pollution incident in every jurisdiction.
- The dangerous goods regulator, because this is a placard load and an incident on a public road.
Records to keep: photographs of the IBC, its label, the drain and the bund; the time the spill occurred, 000 was called and containment was achieved; the estimated quantity lost (about 200 L) and the quantity recovered or absorbed; weather and wind direction; names of responders; the DG transport document and vehicle placard details; and the spill kit items used. Complete the company's incident report and keep copies.
Do not discard the transport document - it is the record of what was on board - and do not tip the used absorbent into the drain or the truck's bin. It is a Class 8 waste and must be disposed of as one.
3. Can the driver right the IBC, re-secure the load and complete the delivery? What has to be true before the truck moves?
Read the worked answer
Not on his own, and not until the load is genuinely safe. Work through what has to be true first.
The leak must be stopped. Either the valve is closed and the IBC is sound, or the remaining contents are decanted into an intact, compatible container by someone competent, or a spill contractor has repacked it. Tape over a cracked valve is not a repair.
The packaging must be transport-worthy. An IBC that has lain on its side carrying several hundred kilograms of acid may have a distorted base, a bent valve cage or a stressed frame. It must be inspected; if there is any doubt, it does not travel.
The rest of the load is now suspect. The strap that slipped is why the IBC fell. Every strap, every pallet and the curtain-sider itself must be re-checked and re-secured to the load restraint standard, with the IBC low and its valve accessible.
The spill must be cleaned up or handed to a contractor, and the regulator and the company must know it has been done.
The company must authorise continuation. The driver should not make that call alone on a highway shoulder at 7:40 pm with one bar of signal. In practice the load is usually recovered by a company or contractor vehicle and the driver does not complete the delivery that night. If every point above is satisfied and the company authorises it, the run can continue - but with the incident already reported, not afterwards.