Assessing the Economic Effect of Incidents Involving Truck Transport of Hazardous Materials

Because of its potential to harm human health and the environment, transportation of hazardous materials has become an important national safety issue. Although the general assumption is that incidents that occur in shipping hazardous materials are costly, a method to characterize their full economic effect has not been developed. As a result, comparing the need to improve safety among hazardous and nonhazardous cargo shipments, and among different classes of hazardous materials shipments, has been difficult. A method has been developed to assess the economic effect of incidents involving truck transport of hazardous materials. Annual commodity flow and incident occurrences were estimated, and a comprehensive assessment was made of the economic consequences of each incident. Impact considerations included injuries and fatalities, cleanup costs, property damage, evacuation, product loss, traffic incident delay, and environmental damage. The method was applied to Class 3 shipments in 1996 to illustrate its use and to evaluate its potential as a policy tool.