Hazardous-materials trucks: terror threat?

Such vulnerability rises dramatically after a truck hits the open road. Hijackers could take it by force, many agree.

Available technologies, however, could prove a major deterrent, says the Transportation Department. Its 2004 study found eight technologies were largely successful, including satellite-based communications, global positioning tracking systems, remote vehicle-disabling devices, and "panic buttons" that send out an instantaneous alert to law enforcement. Biometric identification had some problems but was considered promising.

Such a portfolio of technologies could reduce the hijacking threat by about 36 percent, the DOT study concluded. At the same time, the technologies could save the industry an estimated $4.1 billion through improved operating efficiencies, it found.

As of 2003, nearly two-thirds of the nation's 115,000 fuel trucks had global positioning systems and wireless communications – the basic platform for more advanced systems. But only 12 percent had a panic button, and just 8 percent had remote vehicle disabling, the study found. And getting the industry to adopt these might require government mandates – something the industry opposes.

"We're not supporting the mandating of any technology simply because you are a hazardous-materials transporter," Mr. Conley says. "Tell me what you're hauling, and we'll tell if it makes sense."

Some truckers say the technology is vital. "I don't know why this technology isn't moving faster into the industry," says Reggie Dupre, president of Dupre Transport, which transports a range of hazardous materials in a 350-truck tanker fleet based in Lafayette, La.

During a year-long federal test, one of Mr. Dupre's drivers accidentally bumped a "panic button" device. Within minutes, police had the rig surrounded.

Tanker trucks carrying liquefied energy gases have worried terror experts since the 1970s. Now, with shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) set to soar in coming years alongside already robust shipments of liquefied petroleum gas, some security experts are again sounding the alarm. Their prime evidence: a truck accident in Spain.

Industry officials have long argued that LNG trucks are almost immune to explosion. But in 2002, an LNG truck in Spain flipped over, burned, then exploded into a 500-foot fireball that killed the driver and burned two others.

"The severity of this kind of explosion is something people haven't usually considered applicable to LNG trucks," says Jerry Havens, former director of the Chemical Hazards Research Center at the University of Arkansas. "But what happened in Spain changes that picture. It shows you've got the potential for a massive explosion."

Despite the Spain incident, industry spokesmen say LNG is not explosive.

"We don't view LNG tractor trailers as a high target for any intentional attacks whatsoever," says Bill Cooper, of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, a coalition of energy providers. "It would not explode, just burn back to its ignition source. Therefore you have to wonder if that's really a target-rich environment."

When an LNG tanker truck flipped in Massachusetts in May and another LNG tanker burned in Nevada last summer, neither produced an explosion, he notes.

But if terrorists are involved, then the equation changes, Dr. Havens and other experts argue. A hijacked LNG tanker truck could be rigged to explode fairly easily, Richard Wilson, a Harvard physicist, warned in a 2003 speech.

One thing is clear: More LNG trucks will hit the road in coming years if the federal government approves new LNG terminals at US ports.

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