Transportation Risk Assessments – A Review and Look to the Future

UMMARY We have been performing risk assessments for the transport of hazardous materials for the last quarter century. What is the best use of transportation risk assessments? This paper suggests that it is not enough to perform a risk assessment that shows a hazardous material could be safely transported. A good transportation risk assessment can identify some key performance parameters that are major contributors to the risk. Measuring these parameters can be an effective monitoring instrument of actual transportation operations. A risk-based monitoring program not only can verify impacts are low but also identify ways to make transportation of hazardous materials safer. It can save lives.