Incidents

Scope

Any person in possession of a hazardous material during transportation, including loading, unloading, and storage incidental to transportation, must follow the incident reporting procedures listed in the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR).

Regulatory citations

• 49 CFR Part 171, Subpart B — Incident reporting, notification, BOE approvals and authorization

Key definitions

• Discharge: The uncontrolled release of a liquid, gas, or other substance from the packaging it was contained in.
• Leakage: The accidental escape of a substance through a hole or crack.
• Person: An individual, corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, society, joint stock company; or a government, Indian Tribe, or authority of a government or Tribe, that offers a hazardous material for transportation in commerce, transports a hazardous material to support a commercial enterprise, or designs, manufactures, fabricates, inspects, marks, maintains, reconditions, repairs, or tests a package, container, or packaging component that is represented, marked, certified, or sold as qualified for use in transporting hazardous material in commerce.
• Spillage: The accidental or unintentional release of a substance when transferring it to another container.
• Unintentional release: The escape of a hazardous material from a package on an occasion not anticipated or planned. This includes releases resulting from collision, package failures, human error, criminal activity, negligence, improper packing, or unusual conditions such as the operation of pressure relief devices as a result of over-pressurization, overfill, or fire exposure. It does not include releases, such as venting of packages, where allowed, and the operational discharge of contents from packages.

Summary of requirements

• Incident reports must be made whenever there is a spill, discharge, or leak of hazardous materials, including hazardous wastes and hazardous substances, or there is direct involvement of the hazardous materials arising out of an accident.
• The National Response Center (NRC) must be notified as soon as practical, but no later than 12 hours after the occurrence of certain hazardous materials incidents.
• A written Hazardous Materials Incident Report must be made within 30 days of discovery of an incident arising out of the transportation, loading, unloading, or temporary storage of hazardous materials.
• A written Hazardous Materials Incident Report can be made online at https://bit.ly/3ItGhEY or on DOT F 5800.1.