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Parking with hazardous materials

On Behalf of | Jan 8, 2019 | Truck Accidents |

Businesses, communities and individuals in Georgia often utilize certain materials that, regardless of the apparent mundaneness of the tasks they support, would technically qualify as being hazardous. Thus, the need for such materials to accessible means that they must also be transportable. Yet transporting hazardous materials can be a dangerous job, as evidenced by the statistics shared by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that show that over 20,000 incidents related to the transport of these materials happened in 2018 alone (causing over $70 million in damage). Of those nearly 650 were due to accidents that occurred simply during the storage of materials in transit.

One might think that stored materials (even those being transported) would be safe, yet simple human error can often lead to incidents that can be catastrophic in their scope. Even something as simple as parking in the wrong place (with hazardous materials in tow) can present a risk. For this reason, safety regulations have been created directing where hazardous material drivers can park when not in transit.

Per the Code of Federal Regulations, a truck carrying materials not recognized as being among the most dangerous cannot be parked within five feet of the traveled area of a public or private street or highway for anything other than brief periods of time. If the materials being transported are dangerous, the those driving them must observe the following parking safety guidelines:

  • No parking within five feet of a public or private street
  • No parking within 300 feet of a bridge, tunnel, dwelling or place of business
  • No parking on private property unless the owner is made aware of the presence of the materials and agrees to allow them to be temporarily stored there

Violations of these regulations can result in serious fines, license suspensions or even time in prison.

 

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