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ATTACHMENT A. <br /> NORFOLK SOUTHERN'S COMMITMENT TO <br />SAFE TRANSPORTATION OF HAZARDOUS iVlATERIALS <br /> <br /> Safety, including safe transport of ha~?dous material is Norfolk Southem's (NS') highest <br />priority. This unflagging commitment, which goes beyond simply complying with existing <br />regulations and accepted industry practices, has resulted in NS' industry-leading safety <br />performance. NS is dedicated to being a responsible member of the communities it serves and is <br />also motivated by the tenet that safety is good business. Simply put, accidents are both <br />damaging and expensive, and NS is devoted to preventing them. The following summarizes NS' <br />ongoing commitment to safe transportation of hazardous mat~'/als. <br /> <br />WHAT IS HAZARDOUS MATERIAL? <br /> <br /> The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) defines a hamrdous material as ",in>, <br />substance or material in a quantity or form which poses an unreasonable risk to health, safety, <br />and property when transported in commerce." This includes a rather ~t'tensive list of chemicals <br />of varying degr~s of hazard. <br /> <br /> Norfolk Southern has transported over 250,000 loads of hazardous materials annually for <br />the last sev~-al years with an ~a:etlent safety record. Ov~mR,. 99.96 lgXr.~t of the hazardous <br />materials shipped on NS arrive without incident, and NS is continually working to improve their <br />safety and environmental performance. System-wide, hazardous materials traffic amounts to <br />about five percent of the 3.8 ro 4.0 million total carloads of freight handled by NS each year. <br />Completion of the Cora'ail Transaction will increase hazardous materials loads on some rail line <br />segments, and decrease loads on others. However, NS expects the system-wide percentage of <br />hazardous materials to other freight to remain about five percent post-Transaction. <br /> <br />NS' EXISTING RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FOR HAZARDOUS MATERIALS <br /> <br /> Prevention is the primary objem/ve of the NS Risk Management Program for I-la~ntous <br />Materials. Prevention means minimizing risks while maximi:,/ng employee safety and protection <br />of the environment. NS achieves this objective through effective training, regulatory <br />compliance, safe operating pmmices, ~luipment and fight-of-way malnmmnce, risk assessment, <br />and contingency planning. <br /> <br /> Employe~ Training - Effective employee training is the cornerstone ofham.rdous <br />materials incident prevention. Since 1993. over 20,000 NS employees have successfully <br />participated in the NS hamrdous materials training program. Since then, NS has provided <br />refresher waining annually to employees with key hazardous materials management and handling <br />responsibilities - even though federal regulations only require such refresher training every three <br />years. Environmental Awareness training is also conducted for all employees on a regular basis. <br /> <br />May29.1998 1 <br /> <br /> <br />