Hazardous-materials trucks: terror threat?

When he crisscrossed the East Coast in his big rig, New Jersey truck driver Bob Grant hauled everything from baby powder to rocket fuel. His specialty was hazardous materials, or hazmats, such as gasoline, butane, and diesel fuel.

Then came 9/11. Worried that terrorists would hijack his tanker truck and use it as a weapon, Mr. Grant switched to dump trucks and retired a few years later.

His jitters reflect a growing concern about terrorist truck bombs. In Tunisia in 2002, a suicide terrorist linked to Al Qaeda detonated a propane tanker beside a synagogue, killing 21 people. A 2004 visit to Iraq by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was punctuated by a fuel-truck attack that burned a section of Baghdad. These and scores of other truck attacks worldwide have fueled a growing debate over whether the United States is vulnerable to a similar strike. Last August, the FBI warned of a possible fuel-truck attack in a major US city.

The federal government's post-9/11 programs are enough to protect hazmat trucking, say federal officials and trucking organizations. Some security experts say more needs to be done. At issue: Should the government force the industry to spend $1.1 billion – about $5,500 per truck – on new technologies that could reduce the truck-bomb threat by a third?

"If you gave me a tanker truck and a phosphorous bomb, I could make a huge explosion anywhere I want," says Randy Larsen, an analyst with the Institute for Homeland Security in Alexandria, Va., a nonprofit consulting firm. "Hazmat security should be among the Top 10 national concerns, but we don't act like it is."

Ever since Timothy McVeigh drove an explosive-laden truck into the garage of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, Americans have been aware of truck bombs. But Mr. McVeigh's homemade bomb was only 2 tons. Large hazmat 18-wheelers – Class 6 trucks – can haul 20 times as much weight.

Every day, some 800,000 hazmat loads hit the road, carrying everything from chlorine and gasoline to liquefied natural gas and radioactive material each year, according to a recent study by the Transportation Security Administration. Nearly 2 in 5 of those shipments are classified as "extreme risk."

Such shipments are "dangerous and ready-made weapons," the Department of Transportation concluded in 2004, and are "especially attractive" to terrorists.

Since 9/11, the federal government has tightened trucking security. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began in 2004 requiring fingerprinting and background checks on drivers with hazmat licenses. It also instituted a "highway watch" program to help drivers spot threats. The Department of Transportation also requires hazmat truck companies to have detailed security plans.

"There is a much sharper realization among hazmat truckers since 9/11 that you've got to be more alert," says John Conley, president of the National Tank Truck Carriers Association. That includes "things as basic as locking your truck. Our drivers understand their loads could be used in a bad way."

But these steps aren't enough, several industry observers say.

"Normal trucking operations are still an open invitation to a terrorist," says Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Inc. in Grain Valley, Mo. "Even now, five years later, I don't know if they've really tightened up."

These observers point to multiple vulnerabilities. "My biggest concern is that we've got pretty lax security at a lot of trucking terminals," says a terminal manager for a large liquid bulk hazmat carrier on the East Coast, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to news media. "It's not uncommon at all to see several tankers already loaded with hazmat, and the gates to these facilities are wide open most of the time. It's inviting trouble."

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