Improving security in road transportation of hazardous materials

A great variety of hazardous materials (HazMat) are transported by road and, with a few exceptions, no particular restrictions are posed to their routes and no surveillance is exerted during their trip. On the other hand, it is recognized that the potential consequences of an accident involving these materials may be severe or even catastrophic. Such road tankers may therefore represent an attractive target for terrorists, as also recognized by the A.D.R. regulation which identifies some high consequences dangerous goods (HCDG) classes, requires the adoption of security measures, and lists the essential elements to be included in the security plan, which should be prepared when transporting such materials. However, as a matter of fact, the HCDG list includes practically all fuel tankers (gasoline, LPG, kerosene, etc.) so that providing all these vehicles with proper security devices may be impracticable and rather expensive; moreover workers’ privacy should be safeguarded. The present work focuses on critical security issues to be addressed when transporting high consequences dangerous goods, and considers some devices and procedures aimed at reducing the risk. The complexity of the system can be modulated based on the available resources and specific circumstances (type of dangerous good, route features, and others). An attempt is also made to further subdivide HCDG classes into three large groups, based on the type of consequence (fire, overpressure and missiles, toxic cloud) and on the expected impact areas associated to a deliberate release of the product into the environment. This will allow to properly scale the complexity of the proposed security apparatuses and procedures