Hazardous materials incident response planning and pipeline safety recently were enhanced as two more safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) 2019 – 2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvementswere implemented.

The NTSB this week marked safety recommendations R-14-005 and P-15-034 as closed – acceptable action taken, bringing to 33 the total number of implemented safety recommendations from the list.

Safety recommendation R-14-005, issued following the Lac Megantic, Quebec, Canada, train derailment to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, sought revision of an existing regulation to require comprehensive response plans for worst-case discharges of oil and petroleum products from rail tank cars.

The second implemented safety recommendation, P-15-034, sought revision of Consolidated Edison Company’s plastic pipe fusion welding procedures, following the NTSB’s investigation of a March 2014 natural gas explosion and fire in New York, New York.

“I’m pleased to be able to speak about the implementation of these two recommendations from the Ensure the Safe Transportation of Hazardous Materials issue area of the 2019 – 2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements,” said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt. “As I noted in our recent mid-point review for the Most Wanted List, we still have considerable work to do. For example, none of the “Focused 46” – those recommendations we believe can and should be implemented by the end of 2020 – have been implemented. There are 231 other recommendations associated with our list that remain open. Each of those recommendations, if implemented, can help save lives and prevent accidents,” said Sumwalt.

The implementation of safety recommendations R-14-005 and P-15-034 brings to 20, the total number of recommendations implemented in the Ensure the Safe Transportation of Hazardous Materials issue area of the 2019 – 2020 Most Wanted List. The issue area has a total of 46 safety recommendations associated with it, the most of any of the 10 issue areas on the Most Wanted List. The issue area has five safety recommendations that are part of the “Focused 46.”