Road Users Exposed to Harm from Transportation of Dangerous Goods - Definition and Estimation

The Italian Interreg Project DESTINATION was intended to acquire data on the transportation of dangerous goods and use them, developing a tool to protect the territory. The Project developed a risk analysis model for examination and assessment of the elements exposed to harm in the event of accident scenarios involving hazardous substances. Defining the risk model, the need emerged for a procedure able of explicitly estimating the number of road users that could be affected in case of dangerous goods accident. After a brief presentation of the risk model, this paper describes the method adopted for the quantification of the possible involved road users, in coherence with the Project’s objectives and requirements. Due to the specific nature of the subject, it was necessary to consider parameters not included in traditional vehicle queuing models, such as the possibility of assessing users in transit on roads not directly affected by the accident and of differentiating analyses depending on the temporal development of the event (instantaneous vs. noninstantaneous events).