Threat of terrorism, accidents turns attention to tunnel safety. (Property/Casualty: Loss/Risk Management Notes).

Terrorism, volatile cargo and human error combine to create huge risks for rail- and road-tunnel safety. The Mont Blanc tunnel fire of 1999, which occurred on the border of France and Italy, burned for two days and killed 39 people. Subterranean highway systems--such as Boston's Big Dig project, which is nearing completion--fuel concerns about terrorist attacks.

Bill Kennedy, a tunnel-fire safety expert and vice president for engineering consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff, talked with Best's Review about some ways to offset the risks and keep tunnels safe for travel and transport of goods.

Q. Are train or road tunnels more at risk for fires?

Road tunnels are, because cars using gasoline are much more volatile than trains using diesel fuel. The tunnels in New York--including the Lincoln and the Holland--have about one or two car fires a year, and they are considered routine incidents. All the agencies that deal with road tunnels have a procedure to deal with fires. The thing that's a horse of a different color is either if you have a deliberately caused incident or, in the interest of saving time and money, a driver tries to sneak illegal cargo through the tunnel.

Q. The 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire was caused by foodstuffs. Isn't that an innocuous cargo?

The Mont Blanc tunnel fire was caused by a tanker full of margarine. Six years ago, the first margarine fire that I'm aware of occurred, called the English Channel Tunnel Fire. One of the things that burned was a container full of margarine, and it gave off a lot more heat than anyone suspected. It was not looked at as a risky cargo at all prior to that incident. Between the time of the Mont Blanc fire and the Channel Tunnel fire, I don't think the French and Italians had caught on to the fact that they had a serious risk.

The other problem was that one-half of the Mont Blanc tunnel was operated by the French and the other half by Italians, and they had an arrangement that every other Tuesday, if the moon was full, they talked. Things that happened during the fire from an operations viewpoint showed there were a lot of painful lessons to be learned. A lot of people faced ridicule because their operating procedures were not good, and their reactions were pitiful. The lessons learned include there must be a single point of command during a crisis and an established set of procedures to follow.

Mont Blanc went 34 years without a large fire. Because of this infrequency, you tend to get complacent. The attitude of complacency, in my opinion, raises the likelihood that an event will occur.

Q. What should be keeping P/C insurers up at night concerning tunnel-fire risk?

The biggest and most common failure is the human element. If I were working for an insurance company, I would be concerned how teams are prepared and keep prepared. For instance, after the first World Trade Center bombing, they instituted drills. As a result, during Sept. 11, they had buildings with tens of thousands of people in them and only 2,800 deaths. The drills they had been holding since 1993 paid a big dividend.

RELATED ARTICLE: Study: Motor-Vehicle Records Incomplete in Many States

One in five convictions for traffic violations might be missing from motor-vehicle records, according to a new study by the Insurance Research Council.

The study of court records and motor-vehicle records in four states--Connecticut, Florida, Washington and Ohio--shows that as many as 22% of convictions sampled weren't recorded on motor-vehicle reports of the drivers involved, the council said.

Convictions for traffic violations issued to out-of-state drivers appeared even less frequently on motorists' driving histories, with 47% of a sample of convictions missing from the records of Florida drivers who were convicted of traffic violations while in Connecticut, the council said.

Insurance companies use traffic-violation histories found on motor-vehicle records to predict drivers' future conduct, which can affect their premiums for different types of insurance such as automobile insurance, life insurance or medical insurance, the council said.

"At the moment, there is no alternative source of information for insurers other than information provided by the potential insured," said Elizabeth A. Spninkel, senior vice president of the council.

"There is an incentive for someone to be less than fully honest when applying for insurance, and that's unfortunate, because that means those of us who are good drivers will be subsidizing those who have less-than-perfect records, which is a concern for all of us."

Loss/Risk Management Notes is compiled by Senior Associate Editor Lynna Goch.