Risk assessment of class 3 (PG II & III) hazardous materials in transportation

Risks associated with transportation of Class 3 packing group II & III hazardous materials in transport by motor carriers were investigated. Incident data of transportation of Class 3 materials was collected from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) database for a period of 10 years (2005–2014). The collected incident data was screened later for small quantities (≤ 8 gallons) and for single component (32,455 incidents). Root causes of the incidents (31,307 incidents) were categorized according to different transportation phases and corresponding frequencies were determined. Using the available consequence data (fatality/injury, financial damage, and quantity released) incident pyramids were prepared and later risk matrices were developed for fatality/injury, financial damage, and quantity released. Analysis found the risk of Class 3 (PG II & III) material in transportation a low consequence‐high frequency phenomenon and also revealed some key issues such as almost two‐third of the total incidents occurred during “unloading” phase of the transportation. Procedural deviation and human error were found as the two most frequently cited categories, and there was no incident resulting in fatality in these ten years. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Process Saf Prog 37:376–381, 2018