PHMSA RE-DEFINES "SERIOUS INCIDENTS"
The Department of Transportation’s Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (OHMS),
within the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), has developed a new
definition of a hazardous materials "serious incident." Our purpose in re-defining the "serious incident" is to identify a subset of all reported incidents that can be used to measure OHMS’ performance over time, and to identify a subset of all reported incidents that require more intense scrutiny and, potentially, programmatic response.
Starting with reporting on 2002 incidents, PHMSA defines “serious incidents” as incidents that involve:
- a fatality or major injury caused by the release of a hazardous material,
- the evacuation of 25 or more persons as a result of release of a hazardous material or
exposure to fire,
- a release or exposure to fire which results in the closure of a major transportation artery,
- the alteration of an aircraft flight plan or operation,
- the release of radioactive materials from Type B packaging,
- the release of over 11.9 gallons or 88.2 pounds of a severe marine pollutant, or
- the release of a bulk quantity (over 119 gallons or 882 pounds) of a hazardous material.
For the sake of comparison, years prior to 2002 will include two sets of "Serious Incident" reports,
one using the original definition and one using this new definition.
A document describing the analysis PHMSA conducted to re-define the "serious incident" is found at the following link:
Serious Incidents: New Definition (pdf 40K).
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