HUMAN FACTOR AS THE MAIN OPERATIONAL RISK IN DANGEROUS GOODS TRANSPORTATION CHAIN

Abstract

When packaged dangerous goods (DG) are transported by road, it is critical to follow both legal requirements as well as meet suggested safety regulations in order to prevent accidents during activities with chemicals that are harmful for man, assets and environment. Due to the fact that there are multiple parties involved into handling and transportation procedures, plenty of different risks can occur during these activities with DG. As the importance of human factor has been underestimated, this paper focuses on analysing different types of risks within a dangerous goods transportation chain related to specific participant. By analysing and prioritising risks, the most critical of them are identified and evaluated upon possible harm to entire chain. The paper presents a combined overview study based on theoretical aspects and which is supported by results of previous studies regarding risk assessment of DG transport in practice. Additional results of research regarding how involved parties in Estonia evaluate possible harms resulted by their activities while handling and transporting DG confirm the main finding that human factor is one of the crucial factors why accidents occur. Despite the limited study group generalisations of research results are applicable widely in Europe due to the universal features of risks as well as common legal requirements (The European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road; i.e. ADR). In scope of further research, results of present study are milestones to focus on managing risks affected by human factor in road transport of DG.

Key words: dangerous goods, road transport, ARD regulations, risks, human factor