Recently two interesting studies related to the transport of dangerous goods have been carried out in Italy and Germany. The Italian study is based on accidents on road and rail occurring in the period 1985 to 1988, and approximately 250 accidents have been included in the analysis. The German study covers road accidents with dangerous goods in 1982 to 1984 and includes approximately 350 accidents. Furthermore the French Ministry for the Environment has published very extensive accident lists for the years 1987 to 1990 including more than 2000 accidents with hazardous materials, both in relation to transportation and fixed installations. The paper analyzes these studies in depth, and attempts to give an overview of the differences and similarities between the 3 countries. Available data on the volumes of material transported are presented. The number of serious accidents in the three countries are estimated and subsequently normalized according to the kilometers driven with dangerous goods per year. The differences and similarities are discussed and an attempt is made to extrapolate the findings to the entire European Community. (A)
Samenvatting