Each day in America there are more than 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials that are transported across highways by tractor-tailor rigs. On a single stretch of highway in Augusta County Virginia, 216,000 gallons of flammable liquid travel north and south on Interstate 81 every 60 minutes. The Deputy Chief of Augusta County Fire and Rescue put it succinctly: "Any interstate with the amount of material we've got going up and down I-81 is a time bomb." Discussing the potential legal issues involved, David N. Nissenberg writes:

When personal injury litigation involving hazardous materials spills reaches the appellate level, one particular issue seems to grab the attention of the court, and that is the issue of strict liability. The seminal case on this topic is Siegler v. Kuhlman, 81 Wn. 2d 448, 502 P.2d 1181 ( Wash. 1972), where tragically a young lady drove her car into a pool of . . . gasoline and died in the flames of a subsequent gasoline explosion. This spill was caused when a tank trailer disengaged as it was being driven down an off-ramp. It then catapulted off the freeway through a chain-link fence and landed upside down on the road on which the young lady was driving. Why the accident happened was a mystery since evidence of the driver’s negligence was sketchy at best; the rig had been well maintained and conformed to ICC standards, and there was no evidence of patent defects in the metal connection between the truck and the trailer. With this in mind, the Washington Supreme Court decided to apply strict liability . . . .

As the law evolved . . . [the common carrier or public duty exception] to the application of strict liability in the transport of hazardous materials began to take hold . . . . [I}t is premised on the belief that, if a common carrier is legally obligated to carry abnormally dangerous cargo, it should not be held liable for damage that may result in the course of that transportation (such as, for instance, that which would be caused by an explosion of dynamite), absent some showing of negligence on the part of the carrier.

     . . . .

Determining the applicable law of hazardous materials spill litigation is not the only task that an attorney will encounter in his or her efforts to prepare the best possible case. It is important to understand the cause of the spill and whether the spill was preventable. By engaging in this exercise, potential defendants and cross-defendants, other than the obvious ones, may become apparent. An excellent source to consider, particularly in high-profile spill cases, is found in the Highway Accident Reports prepared by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which detail probable causes of such accidents and make recommendations based on a comprehensive investigation of the facts underlying the accident. 

Access the complete commentary on lexis.com