At 1 a.m., after having stopped for the night in a parking lot, a lorry driver noted that a 220-litre barrel containing a pasty manufacturing residue has burst open. The drum’s cover had been projected upward, ripping the top of the trailer’s cover. The first responders and law enforcement authorities allowed the truck driver to continue to a waste treatment centre located along the route toward his destination.

The operator identified three causes for the accident ;

• the drum had been overfilled ;
• the products mixed in the drum reacted together by polymerisation ;
• the high ambient heat in the trailer accelerated the reaction.

The following corrective actions were implemented:

• the personal was reminded of the instructions for filling drums (10% of the volume to be left empty) and an end-of-filling check ;
• enhance drum traceability to prevent contact of incompatible products ;
• temperature control of the drums before their departure using a temperature probe ;
• isothermal transport of waste products.