There are many cases of road vehicles carrying dangerous goods meeting an accident and injuries and fatalities occur because there was no evacuation.

On of the example is what happened in Pakistan when a fuel truck capsized after tyre burst. The local people gathered to collect the leaking fuel during which there was an explosion and fire resulting in more than 150 deaths.

Timely evacuation is vital when vehicles carrying flammable liquids, explosives, highly corrosive substances, toxic substances, radioactive materials, gases etc, meets an incident or accident. Road vehicles carry dangerous goods warning panels and HIN, but they do not have an “evacuation” warning sign for general public to understand and quickly evacuate from the scene.

Mr. José Javier Chávez Salinas from Peru has submitted an excellent proposal for placard “Isolation on Transport of Dangerous Goods Emergency“

The placard proposal is a simple design, easily interpreted, based on elements already worked on emergency response plans as shown below:

Background: A portion of a solid black arc, similar to that used in the protective action zone shown in the emergency response guide (ERG). The silhouette of a person leaving the centre of the arch towards the outside, white for better contrast, similar to the icon used in Olympic sports.

An arrow indicating distance from the centre and a number indicating the minimum safe distance in meters, obtained from the Emergency Response Guide (orange pages) for cargo with a number of United Nations that characterizes the load.

This placard or label could be placed on 2 or 3 faces of the vehicle in the upper corner, in order to be observed from anywhere by people who circumstantially cross near the scene, but better still, it would help other people more qualified to direct safely to people with little safety culture, as shown in the figure:

Click here to visit Jose’s website