DOT Would Report on Tanker Rollovers Under Bill Approved by House Panel

This story appears in the Dec. 7 print edition of Transport Topics.

A provision inserted at the last minute into the House hazmat safety bill calls for the Department of Transportation to report to Congress on its efforts to address the longstanding problem of cargo tank rollovers.

The bill, approved by the House Transportation Committee last month and sent to the full House for approval, would require DOT within six months to send a report on the results of the past five years of its research on rollovers and any recommendations it might have to reduce cargo tank rollovers.

The report requirement was included in the hazmat bill after Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.), the chairwoman of a transportation subcommittee seeking to ban carrying flammable liquids in tanker wetlines, learned about what she said was an even bigger problem in the tanker industry.

Brown said last month that she became concerned when she learned there were more than 725 cargo tank rollovers in the past year.

The issue of rollovers came up during a subcommittee field hearing in Baltimore, when Barbara Windsor, first chairwoman of American Trucking Associations, testified that money spent to comply with the legislation’s wetlines retrofit mandate would be better spent on stability-control systems to help prevent cargo tank rollovers.

For several years, rollovers have been a hot topic in the tank truck industry, said John Conley, president of the National Tank Truck Carriers.

“It’s a real issue,” he said. “It’s one that the industry’s working on, and that DOT is working on.”

Conley said he is unaware why the rollover provision was inserted into the bill but that he understood it was “literally added the night before it was marked up.”

“I don’t think Congress could pass a bill that would reduce rollovers,” he added. “If there were such a bill, we’d be glad to work with them and see what it is.”

There are no government mandates for anti-rollover technology, but some carriers have taken the initiative to have stability equipment installed on their new trailers. Some manufacturers are installing it automatically on new trailers, Conley said, unless a buyer specifically requests that it not be installed.

“But there is no magic bullet,” he said. “Vehicle stability control systems certainly help reduce certain types of rollovers, especially those that occur on ramps that tend to do the most damage. But the key is the driver.”

A 2007 study for DOT by Battelle Memorial Institute, a Richland, Wash.-based independent research and development organization, concluded that more than 75% of rollover accidents are the result of driver inattention or error.

The study included an analysis of four different federal databases.

“Ultimate responsibility for the safety of the vehicle rests with the driver,” Battelle said in the study.

“The driver must be aware of situations that can lead to rollover and have the skills and vigilance to prevent those situations from developing.”

Drowsiness and inattention to-gether contribute to one in five cargo tank rollovers, and roadway departures are involved in more than half of all cargo tank rollovers, the study said.

Stability control systems and cargo tanks designed with a slightly lower center of gravity help reduce the number of rollovers, Battelle said in the study, but driver training is an essential ingredient for mitigating the problem.

“The tasks required to safely operate a tanker are essentially the same as those to operate another heavy vehicle, but they must be mastered to a greater proficiency,” the study said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also currently is studying heavy vehicle roll-overs resulting from roadway recoveries.

Although there are no federal requirements for stability control systems or cargo tank truck design, Conley said, DOT has been working hard on the issue.

At an NTTC meeting 18 months ago, Conley said, association members approved a plan to petition NHTSA to make stability systems mandatory on all cargo tankers. However, agency officials said at the time that they were working on a more encompassing new rule that would include all trucks, not just tankers.

In the meantime, NTTC has coordinated with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and collaborated with transportation consultant J.J. Keller & Associates on a poster mailing campaign to help make carriers more aware of the problem.

Steve Niswander, vice president for safety policy and regulatory relations at Groendyke Transport Inc., Enid, Okla., said a study of 200 truck drivers showed that drivers often don’t realize that they are moving too fast when they negotiate freeway entrance and exit ramps.

The study called for truck drivers to run at speeds of about 70 mph for two hours. Then, the speedometer was covered up and the drivers were asked to cut their speed in half.

“Not one of the 200 drivers tested got below 50 miles an hour,” Niswander said. “These days, we’ve given our drivers a Cadillac with quiet engines to ride in, which takes away some of that ability to feel the road or feel their environment.”

Niswander, who leads an NTTC rollover reduction task force, said that a seemingly simple idea has reduced rollovers in Northern Virginia: A sign on the Little River Turnpike exit ramp from Interstate 495 — the Capital Beltway — instructs drivers to slow down to 25 mph and also flashes the speed at which trucks are traveling.

“They used to have one rollover a month at that ramp,” Niswander said, “but they haven’t had a single rollover since they put the sign up.”