Highway Robbery: Social Costs of Hazardous Materials Incidents on the Capital Beltway
View Journal ArticleAbstract
In late summer 1988, three major incidents involving hazardous materials occurred on the Capital Beltway in less than a month. Together, they resulted in one fatality, 13 injuries (two truck drivers, three motorists, and eight firefighters), and hours of delay to hundreds of thousands of vehicle occupants. For months afterward, media attention focused on the problem as public representatives and safety experts debated solutions. Hazmat trucks were finally restricted to the two rightmost lanes. Those incidents are looked at more closely in this paper by estimating the delays that were created and the social costs that were incurred. It was observed that the cost of delay could have been reduced substantially if it had been factored into emergency plans and incident management decisions.
Authors
Theodore Glickman
