What is a reportable dangerous goods incident?

Reporting dangerous goods incidents is important as it assists in the prevention of incidents through raising awareness of accident trends and publicising the learnings from investigations. Reporting can also help prevent the escalation of unsafe conditions if hazards and risks involved in the incident are recognised and addressed.

Further information: Section 9 of the Dangerous Goods Safety Act 2004 states that any person who, to any extent, has the control or management of the dangerous goods involved in an incident must, as soon as reasonably practicable, report the incident to a Dangerous Goods Officer.

Any dangerous goods incident where people, property or the environment are harmed must be reported.

An incident involving dangerous goods must also be reported if:

• but for intervening events, it could have resulted in unreasonable (i.e. serious) harm to people, environment or property (i.e. near miss or hit)
• it results in a dangerous situation
• it is specified in the dangerous goods safety regulations.

Further information: The Dangerous Goods Safety (Security Sensitive Ammonium Nitrate) Regulations 2007 contain specific reporting requirements for the loss of a security sensitive ammonium nitrate. Refer to regulations 14, 23, 26 and 31 for examples of these situations.

Reporting incidents involving dangerous goods on mining operations

Due to legislative requirements, an incident or accident on a mine site involving a dangerous good may need to be reported to both the mines safety and dangerous goods inspectorates of the department.

All parties involved with dangerous goods need to understand their reporting duties for dangerous goods incidents.

These duties include reporting timeframes, the requirements for a written report (a form that details what is to be reported) and what incidents must be reported.

Resources Safety produces annual compilations of the reports received. The publication includes summaries of the incidents and the activity at the time of the incident.

The department publishes significant incident reports and safety bulletins on reported incidents and accidents. These safety alerts allow information to be communicated to industry and the public with the hope that similar incidents can be prevented.

Significant incidents reports cover individual incidents or accidents. Safety bulletins are produced to highlight safety concerns where there has been a cluster or trend of similar incidents, whether in Western Australia or worldwide.

The department also releases reports covering significant dangerous goods incidents in Western Australia so that the learnings can be shared. Detailed reports are available for the following events:

• fireworks incident at Carmel (2002)
• fuel tanker fire at Maddington (2009).