Summary

On April 11, Bulkmatic Transport Company, Griffith IN was ordered by a U.S. District Court judge in Chattanooga, TN to pay a total of $400,400 for failing to provide employees with full HazMat training required by statute. The one-count felony charge, filed in November 2004, stemmed from a January 2001 incident where a Bulkmatic employee suffered serious chemical burns to his torso and eyes while transferring sulfuric acid from a rail cargo tanker to a truck tanker in Chattanooga. Bulkmatic subsequently paid $75,000 in clean-up costs from the 1,800 gallon acid spill. FRA assisted in this investigation which found that Bulkmatic employees, responsible for trans loading HazMat on 113 occasions from February 1999 through January 2001, had also not been trained in accordance with statutory requirements.