Terrorism, trucks, and everyday risk

Date: 2002-12-01

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A recent New York Times article reports that more than 800,000 loads of hazardous materials (hazmat) move on U.S. roads every day, and for the overwhelming majority, the location and operational status is unknown. Congress has invested billions of dollars to enhance airline safety, but security measures against possible terrorist threats on the ground are proceeding more slowly, according to GPSworld.com, a web site focused on Global Positioning System tracking technology.

"Even in the absence of intentional malice," states GPS World, "the federal government should require the real-time monitoring of interstate hazmat transport. Many of our highways run along streams and rivers that supply drinking water for millions of citizens. They run past schools, hospitals, and homes, across bridges and dams, alongside critical infrastructure such as gaslines and telephone networks, past factories and farms."

GPS will play a critical role in tracking and security, says GPS World, but while the technology has been around for some time and such systems are already installed on tens of thousands of U.S. trucks, adequate implementation of the technology for security is still years away. "The absence of regulatory requirement and financial support has inhibited other carriers with less clearcut cost/benefit ratios from making similar investments. In any case, equipment carriage is only part of the problem. Building an emergency response network that can act on real-time data is a formidable task." Read the GPS World article

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