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October 25, 2000 10:58 AM, EDT

Under pressure from the National Transportation Safety Board, the Department of Transportation’s Research and Special Programs Administration will draft a proposal likely to alter tanker trailer design.

	National Tank Truck Carriers
	DOT will draft a proposal to prevent explosions when lines underneath tankers rupture after accidents.

The hazardous materials regulatory agency is responding to a problem it first attempted to address 15 years ago, and it expects to issue a proposal within months, according to Patricia Klinger, a DOT spokeswoman.

DOT reports 47 impact accidents between 1990 and 1997 ruptured pipes beneath tanker trailers, known as wet lines.

Particular attention to the issue of wet line vulnerability has increased since an NTSB finding in an investigation of a 1997 tank truck accident in Yonkers, N.Y. The collision and fireball of that crash killed a doctor, closed part of the New York State Thruway for six months.

For the full story, see the Oct. 23 print edition of Transport Topics. .