Hazardous Materials Incident Reporting

If you haul hazardous materials, keep a supply of Form DOT F 5800.1, “Hazardous Materials Incident Report”, on file so you have them should the need arise. This form can be obtained from the Hazardous Materials Information Center of the DOT, shown at right, or online at www.phmsa.dot.gov.

DOT incident reporting guidelines for immediate telephone notice and submitting a written report are as follows:

Immediate Telephone Notice. You should be thoroughly familiar with FMCSR §171.15, “Immediate Notice of Certain Hazardous Materials Incidents”.

Immediate telephone notice to the National Response Center (NRC), shown at left, is required when, during the course of transportation (including loading, unloading, and temporary storage), any of the following circumstances occur:

1. As the direct result of the hazardous material:
   1. A person is killed or hospitalized, or
   2. Estimated carrier and/or property damage exceeds $50,000, or
   3. Evacuation of the general public occurs lasting one or more hours, or
   4. One or more major transportation arteries or facilities are closed or shut down for one hour or more.
2. Fire, breakage, spillage, or suspected radioactive contamination occurs involving a radioactive material.
3. Fire, breakage, spillage or suspected contamination occurs involving the shipment of an infectious substance, other than a regulated medical waste. In this case, notice can be given to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), shown at left, in place of notice to the NRC.
4. The carrier judges that the situation should be reported, even though it does not meet the above criteria.

Written Reports. You should be thoroughly familiar with FMCSR §171.16, “Detailed Hazardous Materials Incident Reports”.

A written report, using Form DOT F 5800.1, “Hazardous Materials Incident Report”, is required if any of the following incidents occur during transportation (including loading, unloading, and temporary storage). A report must be submitted to the Information Systems Manager, shown at left, within 30 days of the following incidents:

1. A telephone notice of a Hazardous Materials incident, or
2. An unintentional release of a hazardous material or discharge of any quantity of hazardous waste.
3. A specification cargo tank (1,000 gallons or greater capacity) containing any hazardous material suffers structural damage to the lading retention system or damage that requires repair to a system intended to protect the lading retention system, even if there is no release of hazardous material; or
4. An undeclared hazardous material is discovered.
5. A fire, violent rupture, explosion or dangerous evolution of heat (i.e., an amount of heat sufficient to be dangerous to packaging or personal safety to include charring of packaging, melting of packaging, scorching of packaging, or other evidence) occurs as a direct result of a battery or battery-powered device.

Form DOT F 5800.1 is NOT required if the following conditions apply:

1. An unintentional release of hazardous materials occurs while being transported under one of the following proper shipping names:

• Consumer commodity (ORM-D)
• Battery, electric storage, wet, filled, with acid or alkali
• Paint and paint related material when shipped in packaging of five gallons or less

2. The HazMat incident did not require immediate telephone notification.3.The HazMat incident did not involve the transportation of hazardous waste or an undeclared hazardous material.

IMPORTANT CONTACT INFO
Hazardous Material Information Center	800-467-4922	202-366-4488
National Response Center (NRC)	800-424-8802	202-267-2675
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention	800-232-4636
Information Systems Manager	PHH-63 PHMSA DOTWASHINGTON DC  20590-0001	WWW.PHMSA.DOT.GOV