Nfpa Placards and Information

Hazardous Materials

The author of this report is to assess a case study where a truck that has potentially toxic or lethal substances has overturned outside of town. While the truck crashed outside of the city limits, the truck has placards, is leaking and is rather close (but not in) an irrigated field. The author of this report is asked how to proceed given the placard information and other details, what restraints should be used, what advice should be given to those that drive up to the scene and what to say to first responders as they show up. While there are some good bits of news about this spill, the news is mostly bad.

The class 8 placard by itself indicates that the material in question is corrosive. The "dangerous when wet" sign is concerning given that there is an irrigated field nearby. However, the details of the case do note that there is no water/substance contact as of yet. So long as that remains the case, there is not a lot of danger in that regard. The UN 1836 notation is much more telling as this means that the substance is thionyl chloride. The NFPA placard gives more information. The 0 at 12 o'clock (in the red diamond) means that the material is not flammable under normal fire conditions. The blue diamond (the 4 at 9 o'clock) means that even short exposure to the chemical can lead to death or extremely severe injury. The 2 at 3 o'clock means that there will be bad reaction if the substance gets too high in temperature or pressure and it will not play well with water. The slashed W. The bottom (6 o'clock) is another indicator that water interacting with the substance will lead to very bad things (NFPA, 2014).

Given the above, the answers to the questions posed for this case study are as follows. First, the witness needs to get on the horn with the police and make them aware that there is a very dangerous spill and that the town most certainly does not have the proper resources to deal with it. However, they need to do two things extremely quickly. First, the watering of the nearby field needs to be shut off as soon as possible and the second is that the road in question needs to be blocked off completely. Absolutely no one should get anywhere near that truck. The driver being missing is troubling but the focus needs to be on the substance. The witness should block the truck in one direction and perhaps stand down the road for the other direction until police can fill in. As soon as the police are on the way, the chemical safety team should be called to do what they can do. Restraints will include not allowing anyone in or out of the area if at all possible but there should also be no informing any passersby as to what precisely is in the truck. Rather, it should be noted that it is extremely unsafe and that no passage should occur as going so could get someone killed. That could be true of gasoline, let alone what this spill is, so that should get the point across. First responders should be told to stay the heck away from the spill and only stand by to manage traffic and assist anyone that is injured. In no instance should any non-experts get anywhere near the spill. Any fire trucks that show up should be told in advance of even coming by that use of water is absolutely forbidden and will likely cause deaths.