[ RadSafe ] Truck Driver Charged With Lying About Radioactive Cargo

Thu Aug 30 01:39:42 CDT 2007

Your question "If the truck was an open truck, why wasn't the box properly 
secured?"

This happened in Brazil, not a Molybdenum-Technetium generator, but  with 
Iridium source, for Industrial Radiography
A radiographer and their assistants utilizing a l00 curie Ir-192 source, 
was performing  field radiography at pipeline in a  trench. After the 
conclusion the work, long enough in that warm day, from 4;00 a.m. to 6;00 
p.m.,  the  assistants  gathered the  container, and  all other's 
accessories  and survey  meter,  and placed  them on the tailgate of  the 
truck.  Unfortunately the camera was not kept  into the locked box, 
projected to store the unit safely,  even in the case of a collision and 
overturn. Usually, before leaving the place,  the radiographer is instructed 
of following procedures,  as required by the national  competent  authority 
to  confirm  the  adequacy for transport.  However, the  work was longer 
than the usual and the  workers exhausted, as consequence they made only  a 
check  to  confirm the shielding of  the source. The  device was  supposed 
to be  shielded, lamentable  not safely. Unfortunate this was not the unique 
abnormal factor, the workers gone out the customer's facility with the 
truck tailgate open, to better ventilation.

                        While returning  to the  manufacturer's facility 
they did  not perceive that the container  fell onto the road,  and  in this 
way began an incident that could be very dangerous (and really there were 
medical treatment). Only when they arrived to the manufacturer's plant the 
radiographer notices  that  the container was  lost,  and mention  the  fact 
to   the radiation  Protection Officer (RPO) to take  care of  the 
situation.  The  RPO decided to go back in  a very low speed to he 
customer's facility,  about 50 miles (80 km) away,  searching with a very 
sensitive radiation detector,  as  carefully  as  possible,  trying  to 
find  the container  in some part of the road.  However the search was 
unfruitful,  the situation was, therefore, out of the licensee control, in 
this  condition the RPO decided to communicate to Regulatory Authority (I 
was responsible to take care of emergency responsible with radioactive 
sources, this was before Goiania)

                        Meanwhile,  few minutes  later that  the container 
felt onto  the road,  a trucker found the unit in the roadway.  Knowing 
nothing about radiation,  he tools the unit to the job and  called some few 
colleagues to examine the apparatus, trying to  understand what it was. 
However, notwithstanding the source had been stored in the safe position, 
unlucky it wasn't  connected properly and the  trucker,  while examining 
the container, pulled  the source  out of the cable,  onto the  floor, 
following he handled the source,  as well as six of his colleagues,  trying 
to understand  what  it was,  some minutes later the trucker  replaced the 
source into the camera and  pushed  it  until  the  shielded position,  then 
he took  the container at home,  where he repeated the same operation to is 
family. Fortunately, at that moment, the housewife was  much more interested 
in finishing the dinner and  the trucker left he camera in a corner of the 
house. Next day in the morning, before left home to work, he watched the TV, 
then ...

This was reality, I did the investigation and also was responsible to 
enforcement.

I prepared an scenario, with several alternativas to study different 
attitudes, because, it was a realistic fact and I was invited by IAEA to 
present this case in many IAEA International Training Courses, including USA 
at the Argonne Training Division

Jose Julio Rozental

joseroze at netvision.net.il

Israel

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steven Dapra" <sjd at swcp.com>
To: "Clayton J Bradt" <cjb01 at health.state.ny.us>; <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 5:56 AM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Truck Driver Charged With Lying About Radioactive 
Cargo

Aug. 29

         This story leaves out more than it tells.  What was the
radioactive material?  If the box did indeed fall off the back of the
truck, why did the driver lie about it (if he did lie about it) and say
someone stole it?  That makes no sense at all.  How did it fall off the
back of his truck?  I can scarcely believe anyone would be allowed to haul
around a box of radioactive material in an open truck where the box could
slide between the slatted sides.  If the truck was an open truck, why
wasn't the box properly secured?

         According to the article, the driver was driving from Madison to
Milwaukee, and the box was found in Waukesha.  Waukesha is about 60 miles
from Madison.  How could the driver have traveled 60 miles before the box
fell off?  What does getting lost have to do with anything?  How did he
discover that the box had fallen off his truck, when did he find that out,
and why didn't he summon assistance as soon as he knew it was missing?

         If the truck had a closed box, what happened?  Did the driver
drive off with the box sitting on the tailgate?  Did he drive off with the
door open?   I wouldn't call it insane, I would say it's so stupid it
defies description (at least based on the article that's my assessment of 
it).

Steven Dapra

At 09:46 AM 8/29/07 -0400, Clayton J Bradt wrote:

>This is insane!
>*******************************************
>Truck Driver Charged With Lying About Radioactive Cargo
>
>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
>
>By John Diedrich
>
>August 23, 2007
>
>GREEN BAY, WI - A Green Baay man has been charged with lying to federal
>agents after he told investigators in January that someone stole a box off
>his truck containing radioactive material bound for a Milwaukee hospital,
>according to federal records.
>
>Randall U. Kubsh, 53, is charged with two counts of lying, to the FBI and
>U.S. Department of Transportation, according to an indictment handed down
>this week. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison, but it's
>unlikely he will get that much time. In January, the Milwaukee County
>sheriff's office reported that a box of radioactive material bound for a
>hospital was missing. Authorities were concerned because the material could
>cause burning or poisoning if ingested.
>
>Authorities launched a criminal investigation and began a search for the
>box between Milwaukee and Madison, where Kubsh drove, Assistant U.S.
>Attorney Mel Johnson, the prosecutor in the case, said Thursday. The box
>appeared a few days later when a Waukesha man who found it near N. 46th St.
>and W. Lisbon Ave. turned it in, Johnson said. That man is not being
>charged, he said. Kubsh later told investigators he got lost on his way to
>Aurora Sinai Medical Center because of construction, Johnson said. Kubsh
>said he knew the box had fallen off his truck but he couldn't find it when
>he went back to look for it.
>***************************************************************
>Clayton J. Bradt

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