Training of Highway Maintenance Personnel for Hazmat Incident Response

A review of the recent history of hazardous materials (hazmat) training concludes that there is a need for more focused training for small communities' handling of hazardous materials and that this fact has been recognized for several years but never implemented. The recent Hazardous Materials Training Safety Act attempts to address this problem. However, the training needs of highway maintenance workers may not be being addressed adequately, and the importance of such training may not be generally recognized. The paper emphasizes this need based on reviewing the worker's needs and presenting conclusions from a 50-state survey. It is emphasized that in regard to hazardous materials incident response training, the highway maintenance worker should not be forgotten. The paper suggests training levels and makes the point that training should be consistent with expected actions—planned or unplanned. The paper concludes with a set of several questions that should be addressed by any state when setting future policies and procedures for highway maintenance personnel who may be faced with hazardous materials incidents as they do their jobs.