Open AccessStudy of evacuation times based on general accident history
Author(s) -
George Mills,
K.S. Neuhauser,
Jordan Smith
Publication year - 1995
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/174688
Subject(s) - truck , transport engineering , hazardous waste , population , newspaper , accident (philosophy) , engineering , forensic engineering , environmental science , statistics , mathematics , waste management , business , environmental health , advertising , medicine , philosophy , epistemology , aerospace engineering
A key parameter in the calculation of accident dose-risks by the RADTRAN 4 code is the time assigned for evacuation of the affected area surrounding the accident. Currently, in the interest of assured conservatism, this time is set at 24 hrs. Casual anecdotal evidence has indicated that this value is overly conservative and results in assignment of overly conservative estimates of accident dose-risk. Therefore, a survey of recent truck accidents involving various hazardous materials which required evacuation of surrounding populations reported in various news media was undertaken. Accounts of pertinent scenarios were gleaned from databases citing newspapers and other periodicals, and the local authorities involved in each were contacted to get details of the evacuation including time required. This paper presents the data obtained in the study and the resultant mean evacuation time plus limits and factors influencing specific results together with conclusions regarding the appropriate value to be used in the RADTRAN 4 code