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A review of recent accidents involving explosives transport.

Mainiero RJ; Rowland JH III

Proceedings of the 34th annual conference on explosives and blasting technique, January 27-30, 2008, New Orleans, Louisiana. Cleveland, OH: International Society of Explosives Engineers, 2008 Jan; 2:1-12

https://www.isee.org/conferences/archives

20033387

When most people think of explosives transport they think of a hazardous operation. We all know that we aren't allowed to transport explosives through tunnels and are discouraged from traveling through heavily populated areas. Popular opinion suggests that explosives transport is a very risky operation. The authors decided to look into this a little more thoroughly and found just the opposite to be true. While there have been some disastrous world-wide accidents involving the transport of industrial explosives, this is not the case in the U.S. Over the past 10 years, accidents related to the transport of explosives used in mining and construction have resulted in 5 major injuries, 11 minor injuries, and no fatalities. Explosives and ammonium nitrate (AN) transport outside the U.S. has not had such a good record; there have been 4 major explosives or AN transport accidents resulting in a total of more than 300 deaths. Most of these fatalities could have been prevented if the accident site had been evacuated once the explosive or AN cargo began burning. The safe history of explosives and AN transport in the U.S. is due to diligent efforts by government, labor, and industry. However, accidents will become more common and disastrous if we become complacent.

Mining-industry; Explosives; Transportation; Transportation-industry; Transportation-workers; Injuries

6484-52-2

20080127

Conference/Symposia Proceedings

2008

PRL

Mining

Proceedings of the 34th annual conference on explosives and blasting technique, January 27-30, 2008, New Orleans, Louisiana

PA; LA; OH; GA; ME; UT; AZ