Sharing The Road With Tanker Loads
As part of our membership in the ‘90s, we’re used to checking out food labels to find out what’s inside.
But there’s another kind of label of interest to commuters sharing the road with freight-hauling trucks.
Just what is in that tanker truck a mere arms-length away in the next lane?
It’s not as easy as reading the grams of fat in a bag of Cheetos, but labeling laws do help identify the hazardous brews sloshing around in tanks on the highways around us.
All trucks hauling hazardous materials must have a diamond-shaped placard that gives a clue about what’s inside. Many of these placards have a four-digit ID number that says what the substance is.
Last week in lanes next to me I saw tankers with placard numbers 1760 and 1824, which turned out to be titanium sulfate solution and sodium hydroxide solution (caustic soda), both corrosive liquids.
Here’s a sampling of other ID numbers from among the many hundreds of regulated hazardous materials:
Gasoline, one of the most common hazardous material transported on highways, is 1203.
Another common one in this farm country is 1005, for anyhdrous ammonia, used as fertilizer.
Liquefied oxygen (transported at -297 Farenheit) is 1073.
Radioactive materials are 2910 through 2912, numbers seen more commonly around the Tri-Cities.
Kerosene is 1223.
Bombs are 0033 through 0039.
Nitroglycerin is 0143 and 0144.
Rocket warheads are 0286 and 0287.
OK, so you’re not likely to see those last few numbers next to you; the point is, everything has a number and it’s the same whether the material is in a truck, railroad car, ship or plane.
Not all placards have a number showing exactly what’s inside the truck, but instead have a generic symbol indicating a class of materials. Classes, for instance, are explosives (orange placards), poison (white), flammables (red), corrosives (black and white), or just plain dangerous (red and white).
Dan Johnson reads truck labels as the commercial vehicle enforcement officer with the Washington State Patrol. He makes sure that trucks and drivers hauling chemicals are safe and up to code.
He says the only real concern average drivers should have is if they see something leaking from a placarded truck, or if such a truck crashes. But because of the special skill rating required of hazardous-material truck drivers, and the safety record of tanks themselves, he’s not too worried about the legitimate transport of hazardous materials.
What is a problem is if shippers try to pass off hazardous stuff as something more harmless, in order to avoid higher transport costs.
“Something we run across a lot is people don’t placard. They just let it go. If I’m a transporter and I charge more for transporting hazardous materials, the shipper may try to save some money,” by not informing the trucking company, Johnson says.
If he catches shippers cutting corners this way, he’ll fine them or shut them down, he says.
More on tanker trucks in next week’s column.
Going under
The Argonne underpass project is on track for October ‘96 completion, with the detour operating better than expected, according to assistant county engineer Ross Kelley.
“We’ve got a big hole built and we’re working on the bridge itself,” he says.
If it doesn’t get too cold and snowy, concrete work will continue, with a chance of beating the completion goal, Kelley said.
Traffic levels are down slightly since the detour went in, he said, but it seems to be working smoothly.
In other congestion news, the I-90 paving project from Pines Road to the state line is “essentially complete.”
Bumper talk
The “Rush is right” bumper sticker spawned the “Rush is a band” rejoinder. Following from that: “Snaut is a band,” seen on a car in Brownes Addition. (Snaut, pronounced snot, being a local heavy-metal group.)
, DataTimes MEMO: On Your Way is a Valley Voice column focusing on commuter lifestyles and issues. Your views on any of the topics discussed are invited. Please write: On Your Way, The Valley Voice, 13208 E. Sprague, Spokane, WA 99216. Or fax us at 459-5482.