The Department of Transportation and National Tank Truck Carriers will co-sponsor three Tank Truck Rollover Prevention Summits this fall. Summits will focus on the need to reduce rollovers, presentations by leading tank truck carriers and equipment manufacturers on rollover reduction approaches, and development of training and management materials.
These summits will be held November 16 in St Louis MO, November 28 in Baltimore MD, and December 4 in Oakland CA. Attendance is free of charge. Attendees will be encouraged to contribute their own ideas on preventing rollovers.
While the tank truck sector has one of the best safety records in the trucking industry, reducing rollovers and subsequent release of hazardous materials is considered one of the top safety issues by the DOT and the industry itself. DOT recently released the Cargo Tank Roll Stability Study, which found “Rollovers occur in more than two-thirds of the serious single-vehicle crashes of cargo tank motor vehicles.”
More than 78 percent of tank truck rollovers are the result of truck or automobile driver error. More than 20 percent of the rollovers involve straight trucks used to transport such products as propane, home heating oil, and liquid wastes.
The study focused on four key areas: driver training, electronic stability aids, cargo tank design, and highway design.
The study can be found at www.tanktruck.org by clicking on “News and Events. Call NTTC at 703-838-1960 or request registration materials by e-mail at [email protected]. Space at the summits is limited and registration is required.