A barrel of hazardous materials that went missing just days before the Sept. 11 attacks has prompted proposed legislation in California requiring cargo doors on trucks carrying hazardous materials to be locked.

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, on Sept. 7, an unlocked truck carrying 123 drugs of hazardous waste left a naval weapons station 100 miles east of Bakersfield. When it arrived at a transfer station near Sacramento on Sept. 10, after stops in Compton and Richmond, there were only 122 drums. The drums were destined for Indiana, where they were to be incinerated.
State investigators suspect that Navy personnel miscounted the shipment, but the investigation is still ongoing.
Nevertheless, the incident was enough to prompt state Sen. Gloria Romero of Los Angeles to propose legislation requiring that trailer doors on hazmat loads be locked. It also would require that such shipments be videotapes while being loaded or unloaded, and that background checks be conducted on people who work at hazardous-waste facilities and transport companies. In addition, the bill would require immediate notification of discrepancies between loads and manifests. Currently, haulers have 15 days to notify the state. In this case, the state learned of the missing barrel nine days after the shortage was discovered.
According to the paper, neither state nor federal law requires shipments of flammable or explosive materials such as the ammonium perchlorate that was in the missing barrel to be locked.
Ammonium perchlorate is highly explosive and damages the skin and eyes.