Hazardous materials are being carried along the roadways of our country on a daily basis, where commercial trucks with their dangerous cargo rumble alongside sedans, SUVs, minivans, and pickups, sometimes at high speed. These “HazMat” trucks carry various chemicals or materials that can easily extrapolate the deadly consequences of any truck crash.
HazMat Trucks on the Crossroads of America
This is true for any truck accident at any location in the United States. However, the risk of deadly accidents from dangerous cargo hauled by HazMat trucks on our roadways is an exceptionally high concern, given the heavy truck traffic here in our Crossroads of America. There are more rigs on the roads of Illinois and Indiana, and more HazMat trucks, moving along our highways than in most other states.
Consider these recent examples of semi-truck crashes in Indiana and Illinois involving the transport of hazardous materials:
- A HazMat truck rollover on I-80 near Ladd, Illinois, earlier this month, with Anhydrous Ammonia spilling out of the tractor-trailer’s tanker onto the interstate. Fortunately, no one was injured in the spill, which kept the interstate closed for around four hours. Read, “Tanker carrying hazardous materials rolls over on I-80,” written and published by WGLC on October 1, 2021.
- A similar rollover accident of a HazMat truck on I-65 in Johnson County, Indiana caused the spill of a “corrosive liquid” that closed the interstate’s on ramp for several hours. Read, “Hazmat spill closes Whiteland Road at I-65,” written and published by WTHR on April, 2021.
Sadly, some of these HazMat truck crashes result in serious or fatal injuries for the truck driver or others who share the roads with the dangerous rig.
- In February 2021, a trucker died in a crash on the Indiana Toll Road in LaGrange, Indiana, with the resulting leak from the semi-truck’s HazMat trailer causing the evacuation of the surrounding area. Read, “Indiana Toll Road reopens after fatal crash,” written and published by WNDU on February 4, 2021.
- In August 2021, a HazMat semi rollover on I-55 in Sangamon County, Illinois, caused serious bodily injuries to one accident victim and the closure of the interstate for several hours to deal with the flammable oil spill on the roadway. Read, “1 extricated in I-55 semi-truck crash,” written by published by WAND on August 10, 2021.
What are Hazardous Material Trucks?
Hazardous Material Trucks, or “HazMat Trucks,” are semi-trucks, big rigs, tractor-trailers, or 18-wheelers that are transporting a particular type of cargo that has been deemed “hazardous” by state or federal regulation.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) defines hazardous materials as:
those materials designated by the Secretary of the Department of Transportation as posing an unreasonable threat to the public and the environment. The term “Hazardous Materials” includes all of the following: (1) Hazardous Substances, (2) Hazardous Wastes, (3) Marine Pollutants, (4) Elevated Temperature Material, (5) Materials identified in 172.101, and (6) Materials meeting the definitions contained in CFR Part 173.
Hazardous materials that may be hauled by a commercial truck in Indiana and Illinois includes things like:
- radioactive material
- explosives
- material poisonous by inhalation
- compressed methane
- liquefied natural gas
- other liquefied gas with a methane content of at least 85 percent.
Each HazMat truck must be clearly identified as carrying hazardous material, and different levels of danger are given different classifications according to risk. Class 1 HazMat Trucks will be carrying explosives, for instance, while Class 7 HazMat Trucks will have a load of radioactive materials.
Drivers on our roadways alongside these dangerous rigs should be able to easily identify them as a HazMat truck, although they may not be able to discern the exact nature of the cargo being carried by the truck.
- For more, read Hazmat Trucks in Illinois and Indiana: Increased Risk during Emergency Winter Conditions.
HazMat Truck Accidents: Double Danger of Spills and Crashes
What makes the risk of a HazMat truck crash so much more high-risk than the already dangerous semi-truck crash on our roadways is the combined threat of the intensity of impact in any semi-truck crash with the possibility of the HazMat truck’s losing or leaking its hazardous material cargo.
In these situations, not only are the trucker, the rig’s occupants, and the drivers and passengers of other motor vehicles involved in the truck accident vulnerable to bodily injury from the collision itself, but these victims as well as many others who are at or near the crash site may be exposed to toxic injury, as well.
Spills will cause entire interstates to be shut down and communities to be evacuated when the HazMat truck crash has released toxic fumes, like those in an ammonia leak from a tanker rollover. The HazMat truck crash, accordingly, may be the cause of injury for spill victims as well as victims of the truck crash itself.
Injuries in HazMat Truck Crashes can include traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injury, pain and suffering, fractures, as well as burns, permanent lung damage, blindness, and organ failure (liver, kidneys, etc.).
In these cases, there must be an extensive investigation into the incident to determine the scope of liability for the event and the resulting injuries and fatalities. Not only will there be a need to focus upon the truck driver’s activities, as well as the trucking company, but there must be consideration given to the shipper’s actions including how the hazardous material was loaded and stored.
Truck drivers and those who share the traffic lanes alongside them on our local interstates and highways are especially vulnerable to serious bodily harm in any HazMat Truck Crash because of the likelihood of exposure to the truck’s hazardous material cargo. For victims of HazMat Truck accidents, there are avenues for justice through claims for negligence, negligent supervision, product liability, workers’ compensation, and wrongful death laws.
- Also read: Dangerous Cargo on Freight Trains Moving Through Indiana and Illinois: Risk of Fatal Train Accidents.
As you drive along the roadways of Indiana or Illinois, please be aware of the dangers involved in any hazardous material being transported on that route in a commercial rig or HazMat truck. Please be careful out there!
