A new report compiled by the General Accounting Office (GAO) determined that the Department of Transportation needs to improve its data gathering procedures regarding incidents involving the “wetlines” that run underneath liquid-carrying tanker trailers.
The report – mandated by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act or MAP-21 highway bill – found that the DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) incident data cannot be used to reliably identify risks from incidents involving collisions with and spills from tank tanker truck wetlines because the incidents are not specifically identified in PHMSA’s database and the data contain inaccuracies.
While PHMSA requires carriers to report hazardous material incidents, the reporting form does not specifically capture wetline incidents and GAO further found that the “narratives” PHMSA uses to capture wetline data does not always clearly indicate whether an incident is wetline-related and that information about the consequences of incidents, including fatalities, is not always accurate.
PHMSA has made efforts to improve its data, GAO added, such as adding quality checks, but this has not affected how wetline incidents are reported, and inaccuracies remain, it said.
GAO recommended in its report that PHMSA could improve wetline data by requiring carriers to specifically report wetline incidents and by improving information-gathering activities regarding wetline incident consequences.
The agency also added that the DOT should also address uncertainty in the assumptions and data underlying its regulatory cost-benefit analysis.
Additionally, the GAO’s report found that incidents used in the rationalization of the proposed rule (HM-213D) were not specifically identified within PHMSA’s database and that the data itself also contained inaccuracies – music to the ears of the National Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC) trade group.
“I am extremely pleased with GAO’s findings given its significance to the tank truck industry,” noted NTTC President Daniel Furth in a statement.
“As we have mentioned repeatedly, the GAO approached its task in a very professional, thorough manner which led to the same conclusion that we have argued now three times since 1990. Based on this study, I now urge PHMSA to withdraw HM-213D and allow the carrier and enforcement communities to collectively focus their talents and resources on legitimate safety concerns.”
