Incident Reporting, Emergency Response Procedures, and Security Awareness
What this domain covers
What you must report, to whom, and how fast; how to act at the scene; and how to keep a load from becoming a target.
Immediate reporting - 49 CFR 171.15
Call the National Response Center at 1-800-424-8802 as soon as practicable and no later than 12 hours when an incident involves:
- a death or an injury requiring hospitalization;
- property damage of $50,000 or more;
- public evacuation or closure of a major transportation artery or facility for an hour or more;
- fire, breakage, spill, or suspected contamination involving certain radioactive or infectious materials.
Have the shipping paper ready: proper shipping name, class, UN number, quantity, and the ERG guide number.
Written report - 171.16
File DOT Form 5800.1 within 30 days of the incident.
At the scene
Park upwind and uphill, set brakes, shut off the engine, keep people back, call 911 and your dispatcher, and use the Emergency Response Guidebook: find the guide number on the shipping paper, then read initial isolation distances from the green pages for toxic-by-inhalation materials. Fight a fire only if it is small and you are trained - never a tank fire.
Security awareness
Know your cargo, don’t discuss it with strangers or on the phone in public, lock the cab and trailer, park in a secure lot, verify the identity of anyone who approaches, and report surveillance, tampering, or suspicious questions to your dispatcher and 911. Certain quantities require a written security plan under 172.800.
Worked example
A drum of corrosive tips at a dock and a worker is hospitalized. That is an immediate report - hospitalization, not first aid. Call the NRC within 12 hours, then file the 5800.1 within 30 days of the incident.
Traps
Calling only the dispatcher; starting the 30-day clock at the NRC call; and applying water to a 4.3 material that reacts with moisture.