Inspection and handling
as well as emergency and response codes must be covered
WHEN FIRE department members attend a conference dressed in T-shirt and jeans, and advise you that their municipality has no finance available to purchase uniforms, their ability to respond to road accidents involving vehicles carrying dangerous cargo is in serious jeopardy.
You begin to wonder just what type of equipment they have available to meet the situation, says Keith McMurray, a consultant in the transportation of dangerous substances
I have found this problem arising in a number of meetings I have attended in smaller centres situated in rural areas, he told delegates to a one-day seminar arranged by the Insurance Institute of South Africa in Johannesburg last week.
As a result we have been endeavouring to get these municipalities to pool their resources and work together in case of a time of need. We are encouraging them not to duplicate equipment, but instead to spend what limited finance becomes available to them in a group operation so that the area as a whole can meet any disasters.
The terms of the Dangerous Goods Act of 1973 are vague, said McMurray, and have, until now, been handled under the wing of the Department of Health, which has few enough officers available to have them service the transport industry.
Now the authority covering the transportation of dangerous goods is being transferred to the department of transport, where a new set of codes has still to be developed.
As things stand right now, there is no limitation to what type of vehicle you can use to transport dangerous goods, he said. In fact, you can use a wheelbarrow. We are having to resort to world standards, but there are many applications indigenous to South Africa which have to be clarified.
The new code will have to cover the inspection of dangerous goods, the handling of them and the very vital area of the emergency and response codes.
This is a serious matter. Right now you can phone the number for emergency or response items given on a vehicle involved in an accident and, if it is on a Sunday for instance, you can end up with an answering machine. There are any number of them who do not work 24 hours a day.
There is also the matter of having to have traffic officers properly trained, once the dangerous goods traffic falls under the department of transport. It hasn't been their territory until now and there is a tremendous lack of training going on in this respect.
Too often it's a case of please have your accident in the right place.
This attitude has to be changed.
With an oversupply of transporters using the roads of this country, there is always a high risk factor to be taken into account, but the scene of an accident can provide more problems than is realised, he said.
Law enforcement wants the vehicles moved away rapidly, which in itself causes confusion because more often than not the paperwork is neglected, and the right people are missing. The result is that insurance claims are difficult to work out.
Under the act an owner must ensure that adequate insurance covers both loss of product and vehicle, and also see that civil liability is covered, which includes recovery and rehabilitation.
What we are hoping for now is that with the changes to come about standards will be improved and the entire situation regarding the transportation of dangerous goods will be adequately controlled in this country.
