Training of Hazardous Materials Drivers in Europe: What It Is About and How 28 ADR Member States Can Harmonize Their Training Requirements

It would appear that new regulations are far more likely to be observed once accidents have occurred. In 1978 in Spain a severe tank truck accident happened because the driver simply had not been aware ofthe inherent danger from his overfilled tank of propylene. The accident killed more than 200 and left several hundred severely injured. Only in the wake of this accident in Spain was it possible to introduce. for the first time. tanktruck-driver training. It started in Germany. and by 1984 it was applied to transboundary carriage under the A OR-Agreement (European Agreement Concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road). There were no specific contents in the training syllabus for drivers of RAM tank trucks. as only very few carriages of radioactive materials in tanks have ever been carried out in Germany. Up to the present day. no more than perhaps I 0 (!)drivers have recetved training for thts special type of carnage