Tuesday, August 8, 2002

Harrisburg, PA – While conducting commercial vehicle inspections of trucks traveling I-80 in Columbia County, a team of PUC Enforcement officers inspected a semi-truck combination loaded with 43,995 pounds of explosives with various safety and hazardous material regulation violations. Although finding violations is common, the manner in which this hazardous material inspection was conducted was anything but routine.

The inspection team headed by Gerard Clark, a supervisor in the Scranton office of the PUC, was the first team in the State of Pennsylvania to put to use the newly purchased HazMat Trucking Enforcement software. “What I really like is that it doesn’t just show you the regulations like a book, instead it is interactive and allows inspectors to work with the regulations and the loads to make sure they haven’t missed any of the allowed exceptions.” Clark said, “With this unique new software, my inspector was able to do over an hour of research and reading in less than 10 minutes.”

After determining what they expected to see in the semi-trailer, Donald Wilson, PUC Safety Manager, gave the word to break the seal on the trailer and check the load for securement. As the doors where slowly opened, a bag of the explosive material rolled out of the truck and was promptly caught by the driver before it hit the ground. The truck was immediately taken “out-of-service." “We can not have hazardous materials unsecured in the back of commercial vehicles," said Wilson.

“The HazMat Trucking Enforcement software performed well in its first field test, it helped us to more quickly find and document regulatory violations that may exist on the vehicles inspected.” Wilson continued, “I am looking forward to all of our inspectors learning to use this software and it will be a part of our annual training program in the spring.”