Non-accident release of hazmat from railroad tank cars : training issues

Gertler, J.; Reinach, S.; Kuehn, G. · 1999 · ROSA P / United States. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research and Development

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study, conducted for the Federal Railroad Administration, investigates the compatibility between the reading skills of hazardous materials (hazmat) loaders and the written training materials used to instruct them. The research was motivated by the persistent occurrence of non-accident releases (NARs)—unintentional leaks or spills during loading and unloading—which accounted for 898 incidents in 1997. Although NAR rates had declined since 1992, industry stakeholders identified inadequate training as a potential barrier to further safety improvements. Specifically, the study aimed to determine if a mismatch between the complexity of instructional texts and the literacy levels of employees was contributing to these incidents. The researchers employed a case study design involving four chemical companies of varying sizes and regions. Data collection included structured interviews with management, surveys of employee educational backgrounds, and the administration of verbal subtests from the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB) to assess the verbal skills of 35 hazmat loaders. The readability of each company’s training materials was evaluated using the Fry Readability Index, which determines grade level based on sentence and syllable counts. The study compared the Fry index of the materials against three metrics: the employees’ years of formal education, their estimated instructional and independent reading levels derived from MAB scores, and qualitative data from the 1993 National Adult Literacy Survey. The results revealed a significant incompatibility between the training materials and the trainees’ abilities across all four sites. When comparing the Fry index to employees’ estimated instructional reading levels, 53% of the workers fell below the required reading level for the materials. This figure rose to 67% when compared against estimated independent reading levels. Even when adjusting the Fry index to account for text organization features like headings and objectives, a substantial portion of employees remained below the necessary proficiency. Despite this mismatch, all four companies reported low NAR rates, suggesting that dedicated instructors and extensive hands-on, on-the-job training currently compensate for the inadequacy of written materials. The study concludes that chemical companies should assess and modify their training materials to align with the actual reading skills of their workforce, recommending the Fry index as a practical tool for this assessment. The authors provide guidelines for instructional design, emphasizing the need for simpler text, clear objectives, and the integration of performance-based testing alongside knowledge assessments. They also recommend conducting root cause analyses of NARs to tailor training content. The findings imply that while current operational practices mitigate risk, aligning instructional materials with employee literacy levels is essential for sustainable safety improvements and effective procedural learning.

Key finding

The reading level of written training materials was excessively high compared to the reading skills of the trainees, with 53 percent of employees falling below the estimated instructional reading level and 67 percent falling below the independent reading level.

Methodology

other

Sample size: 35

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• hazard perception training