NHP told to inspect all trucks carrying hazardous materials

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2001 | 10:15 a.m.

The Nevada Highway Patrol was ordered Wednesday to pull over and inspect all trucks carrying hazardous materials on the state's highways as part of a nationwide effort to avert additional terrorist attacks.

Jim Rhode, who oversees the transportation of hazardous materials for the NHP, said troopers planned to check driver's licenses and the loads carried by the trucks.

Rhode said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation requested the NHP's assistance here as part of its national campaign.

"The events that occurred on Sept. 11 have caused all of us to re-think our current compliance and enforcement efforts," Julie Anna Cirillo, acting deputy director of the Motor Carrier Safety Administration, wrote in a letter to the NHP.

"We are painfully aware of the devastation that can occur when equipment, such as airplanes, trains or commercial motor vehicles are operated unlawfully by unauthorized personnel. The potential for devastation is dramatically increased when hazardous materials (HM) are involved."

Cirillo added: "We are requesting your assistance to increase vigilance over the movement of HM in our country. Specifically, we are asking (that) all states immediately target HM carriers at the roadside and enhance their driver only inspections of these carriers."

Rhode said he did not know how long the inspections would continue.

Nevada, he said, has 400 to 500 carriers with permits to haul hazardous waste in the state, and there are another 300 to 400 with permits to carry the dangerous materials through Nevada on their way to other states.

In a memo Wednesday, Cirillo referred to the potential for more terrorist attacks.

"A key concern is that terrorists will use hazardous materials in the transportation system as a weapon," she said.

The threat intensified after the Justice Department disclosed that 20 people, including some with ties to the hijackers of the planes that slammed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, were charged with fraudulently obtaining licences to haul hazardous materials.

The FBI independently has been compiling a list of companies licensed by the Department of Transportation to carry the materials, and it plans to check out their employees.

Cirillo said her agency was taking additional steps to heighten awareness around the country to the possible use of hazardous materials by terrorists.