Hazardous Materials Transportation Risk Assessment: State of the Practice (2013)

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104 A p p e n d i x d Interview Questionnaire

HM-10 and HM-12 Combined Questionnaire Note that the items in blue do not necessarily need to be asked and are intended to facilitate the discussion with the interviewee(s). # Question Comment/Response — General Hazmat Transportation Research Questions (A1 – B2) Omitted — Risk Assessment – General C1 What does risk assessment mean to you? [Do they only focus on safety OR security risk assessment? Perhaps they only assess consequence or conditional risk (ignoring the threat component.] C2 Do you conduct research to improve hazmat transportation risk assessments either for your own organization or for the community in general? [Ask ‘Risk Assessment Researchers’ questions (D1- D2)] C3 Do you conduct hazmat transportation risk assessments for your own organization or for clients? [Ask ‘Risk Assessment Practitioners questions’ (E1- E13)] C4 Are you a consumer of risk assessments performed by others? [Ask ‘Risk Assessment Users questions’ (F1-F4)] Risk Assessment Researchers D1 [Assuming the A-section questions have been answered, ensure that risk assessment-specific research projects are identified; if not, follow up with a focus on hazmat transportation risk assessment.] D2 What are the main constraints and analytic assumptions made in your risk- related research, and do you see any weaknesses in your approach? Risk Assessment Practitioners E1 What types of risk assessments do you perform? [Capture differentiation between safety and security here; see C1 comments.] E2 Who performs these risk assessments? [Established roles or job positions for this?]

# Question Comment/Response E3 What are your decision-making processes that consider risk assessments? Who are the users? How do they distinguish between different alternatives? Current uses: Users: a. Mode choice a. transportation managers b. Route choice b. route planners c. Packaging selection c. emergency responders d. Application of security countermeasures d. law enforcement and anti- e. Carrier selection terrorism officials f. Manufacturing location for serving certain e. regulators customers g. Alternate product selection f. transportation enforcement h. Operational changes (incl. training and officials procedures) g. distribution managers i. Emergency response resource planning h. insurers j. Research prioritization i. senior management k. Inspection and enforcement prioritization [If providing results to others, do they just provide data or do they make recommendations? Does the methodology support considering unquantifiable parameters or cost-benefit output?] E4 Did you establish your risk assessment models internally or did you adopt external or industry standard models? E5 What are the key data elements that are input or built into your models? [What are the main elements in (T×V×C ) or (F×P×C)?] E6 Where do you acquire the data used in your risk assessments? Are these data sufficient (i.e., relevant, accurate, complete, timely) for your specific purposes? E7 How often do you update your risk assessments? Do you only update the data or do you revisit the models as well? E8 What assumptions do you make when performing these risk assessments? Examples: a. Uniform distribution of accidents, threats, or release probabilities b. Applicability to all entities, vehicle types, etc. c. Availability of emergency response personnel with training and equipment

# Question Comment/Response E9 What consequences does your methodology consider Examples: a. Human health: acute and chronic; potential exposure vs. expected fatalities b. Environmental: waterways (rivers, streams, reservoirs, lakes) and sensitive land areas (parks, forests, wetlands) c. Critical infrastructure/key resources: bridges, tunnels, intermodal facilities, monuments, landmarks, stadiums d. Economic: economically important areas E10 What modes of transportation do you assess? Could your risk assessment methods be applied to other modes or intermodal transport? [highway, rail, marine, air, pipeline; ability to address intermodal?] E12 Are there any biases built into data or methods that you use? Are they intentional? Example biases: a. More detailed accident rates or other data for one mode or aspect b. Very conservative, such as choosing to overestimate consequences E13 Does your methodology address uncertainty (e.g., inherent errors in data, missing or unquantifiable data, sensitivity analysis, determination of confidence intervals) Risk Assessment Users F1 What types of risk assessments do you perform? [Capture differentiation between safety and security here; see C1 comments.]

G3 What are the main barriers you see for using or performing risk assessments? [e.g., legal ramifications from doing a benefit-cost analysis] G4 Are there any specific organizations or people that you recommend we contact? # Question Comment/Response F2 What are your decision-making processes that consider risk assessments? Who are the users? How do they distinguish between different alternatives? Current uses: a. Mode choice b. Route choice c. Packaging selection d. Application of security countermeasures e. Carrier selection f. Manufacturing location for serving certain customers g. Alternate product selection h. Operational changes (incl. training and procedures) i. Emergency response resource planning j. Research prioritization k. Inspection and enforcement prioritization F3 Where do you get current risk assessments from? How often do you get updated risk assessments? F4 Why do you use that source instead of others or your own work? All G1 Do you communicate the results of your risk assessments internally or externally? [To first responders, sales representatives, enforcement, in developing proposed regulations, etc.?] G2 What improvements in risk assessment methodologies, available information, or data collection would be most helpful to your organization? Examples of limitations: a. Applicability to a single mode b. Cannot support integration of safety and security c. Applicability only to large shipments or locations of frequent operations d. Large uncertainty makes clear choices among alternatives difficult e. Historical data do not reflect changing conditions/trends f. Applicable to generic hazard class(es) and not specific materials [cover improving perceived limitations or gaps]