The Situation of Hazardous Materials Accidents during Road Transportation in China from 2013 to 2019

Shengxue Zhu, Shiwen Zhang, Hong Lang (), Chenming Jiang and Yingying Xing
Additional contact information
Shengxue Zhu: Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Traffic and Transportation Security, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huaian 223003, China
Shiwen Zhang: China Eastern Technology Application Research and Development Center Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201700, China
Hong Lang: The Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China
Chenming Jiang: China Institute of FTZ Supply Chain, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China
Yingying Xing: The Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-15

Abstract: The safety situation of hazardous materials (hazmat) accidents during road transportation in China is severe and very serious accidents occurred frequently. Such accidents not only have a huge impact on the environment but also have serious consequences for people and the economy, such as fires and explosions. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the characteristics and laws of road transport accidents of hazmat systematically. This paper investigated 2777 hazmat transportation accidents in China from 2013 to 2019 to identify the characteristics, consequences, and causes of the accident. The results show that August (10.05%) and December (9.76%) are the peak periods of hazmat transportation accidents, while most hazmat transportation accidents occurred in the early morning (6:00–9:00 a.m.) and at noon (9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.) hours. For the geographical location, the accidents mainly occurred in the east China (34.35%) and the northwest China areas (14.87%). The main types of hazmat transportation accidents were rollover (35.36%), rear-end (22.58%), and collision (14.87%), where the probability of a major leak was high. The most common hazmat transportation accidents involve gas (17.79%), flammable liquid (56.07%), and corrosive substance (12.28%). The most common consequences of the hazmat transportation accidents were leakage (80.34%), followed by fire release (8.32%) and explosion release (2.34%). Human factor (26.74%) is the main cause of hazmat transportation accidents. These findings could help hazmat transportation managers and planners develop appropriate measures for improving hazmat transportation safety.

Keywords: hazardous materials accidents; road transportation; accident characteristics; historical analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9632/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9632/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9632-:d:880938

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().