Spillage of 1200 liters of corrosive substance in a road accident today, 17/10/21, in Saône-et-Loire.

At dawn this Sunday morning, around 05:20, a car collided with a truck carrying 17 drums of dangerous goods. In the collision, 3 containers fell onto the roadway and 1200 liters were spilled onto the road.

It might be interesting to question the quality of the securing. Indeed, securing standards must address a situation of normal driving. An avoidance maneuver, if it does not cause the trailer to overturn, is a normal driving situation. If the securing and the choice of trailer type had been compliant and appropriate, the drums would not have fallen. Only the collision itself could be considered an abnormal situation. However, I find it hard to understand how a collision with a vehicle at a roundabout could cause the drums to fall. Fortunately, the vehicle driver was only slightly injured and was able to return home after a visit to the emergency room. Therefore, the impact would not have been too severe. Hence, I still question the quality of the load securing.

The Prefecture took command of the operations by activating the Departmental Operational Centre (COD), and the police established a security perimeter. Analysis showed a water-miscible product, which could cause environmental pollution. Nearby water catchments were stopped, and a notice was issued to the population not to fish in the adjacent watercourses and also not to draw water from individual wells.

65 firefighters and 15 vehicles were mobilized (see video in the article from the Journal de Saône et Loire).

 I am surprised to see such a truck on a Sunday. As a reminder, a goods transport vehicle with a GVW > 7.5T is not allowed to circulate between Saturday 22h and Sunday 22h.

However, there are a number of permanent exemptions:

• Live animals, perishable goods or products
• Agricultural products: between the place of harvest and the place of storage, packaging, treatment, or transformation of these products (in the region of origin and adjacent regions)
• Equipment and materials for economic, sports, cultural, educational, or political events
• Entertainment fireworks for a duly authorized firing on the same day or the next day, and products for firefighting
• Gaseous hydrocarbons or petroleum products for the running of duly authorized sporting competitions
• Press
• Office or factory relocations in urban areas
• Itinerant sales (fairs or markets), in the region of origin and adjacent regions
• Sales of products in fairs or markets, in the region of origin and adjacent regions
• Air freight trucked under an air waybill
• Goods of a medical nature or for sanitary protection, hospital waste, laundry and goods for the operation of health facilities
• Medical gases and radiography devices
• Radiography devices

 I am not sure that the 17 drums of corrosive materials could benefit from these exemptions!

Individual exemptions may also be provided:

• Indispensable and urgent transport, in response to an unforeseen event (electricity network failure, hospital heating failure, water pipe burst, for example)
• Supplying distribution centers threatened with shortages
• Waste transport for the evacuation of recycling centers and slaughterhouses
• Fuel supply by tanker vehicles of service stations along motorways and aircraft fuel for airports, fuel for professional fishing and passenger ships at ports
• Transport of dangerous goods for urgent loading or unloading at seaports
• Transport of goods for the continuous operation of certain services or production units
• Public service or emergency service vehicles
• Supply of clean linen and removal of dirty linen from hotel facilities with more than 200 rooms per structure
• Delivery of animal feed to farms

I am therefore curious to know the results of the investigation.

A declaration of accident to the DREAL must also be made by the Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor (DGSA) of the carrier. A single condition is enough to trigger an accident declaration to the DREAL, and in this case, it seems to me that all 4 boxes are ticked!

• Intervention of the rescue forces for more than 3 hours
• Presence of a victim (injured or deceased), even if in this case, it is not due to the dangerous nature of the goods.
• Loss of product beyond the various exemption thresholds.
• Repair of damages, particularly related to environmental pollution > 50,000 euros

If you ship or transport dangerous goods beyond certain thresholds, you must have an internal or external DGSA, but make sure they are also competent in securing!

We provide advice and training in securing, to ensure compliance with regulations. We secure all your flows and processes.

To contact us ...

Press: Journal de Saône et Loire

Do not hesitate to read other blog articles!