Railway Safety Regulator & Chemical and Allied Industry Association to sign MOU

Posted on 01 November 2009 by Station Master

The Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) CEO Mosenngwa Mofi and the Executive Director of the Chemical and Allied Industry Association (CAIA) represented by Dr Laurraine Lotter are to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in order to enhance safety within the railway environment with particular emphasis on dangerous goods.

Dangerous goods are commodities, substances and goods that have the potential to pose a significant risk to health and safety, property and the environment if not managed properly. These dangerous goods are categorised into 9 different classes including explosives, gases, flammable substances, infectious substances, radio active materials and acids. In most cases these dangerous goods would be manufactured, imported or exported by a CAIA member before it’s would be transported by various modes, with rail being an option. The purpose of this MOU is therefore aimed at formalising a relationship in order to enhance safety within the railway environment with particular emphasis on dangerous goods. The areas of co-operation include:

Information sharing in relation to legal requirements, safety permits, railway occurrences and audits;
training and awareness;
provision of technical support and advice specifically on chemicals, their composition and related hazards;
research and developments on issues concerning approaches to improve the safe transportation of dangerous goods by rail such as measures to improve packaging.

The consignors and consignees (CAIA Members) are the main role players, who are required to comply with specific responsibilities when dangerous goods are transported by rail. These include:

classification( the determination of the appropriate class of dangerous goods based on a particular criteria);
suitable packaging( packaging is a performance based system which the required packaging to subject to a series of tests in order to determine its performance);
marking and labelling on packaging;
placarding (the labelling of packages, containers, receptacles and wagons);
handling and loading.

The strengthening of the relationship between the RSR and CAIA by the conclusion of this MOU will promote safety when dangerous goods are transport by rail and consequently lead to the reduction of occurrences.