I started the ADR course today along with 20 fellow students.
Most of them are renewing a certificate they already have so its full of people with lots of experience.

I have been very quiet just sitting there and trying to take it all in.

We started with introductions and a talk through the basics of what is expected of us.

It all seemed a bit technical at first and I was pretty worried about the exams on Thursday but in the afternoon it all seemed to click and I feel a lot more confident about it all now.

We studied the first part of ADR The movement of Hazardous Materials, Core and were shown loads of slides and videos of frightening scenarios and injury's.

A famous incident I heard about today was finally put to rest, a myth I have been hearing about ever since I started lorry driving.

It was 1969 and a tanker carrying an acid called Oleum was involved in an accident with a scaffold lorry.

The scaffold poles pierced the tanker and a large amount of the Oleum leaked onto the M6.
An off duty nurse was following the tanker and rushed over to help,
The driver was banging on the windows of the cab to warn her not to approach but she thought he needed help and carried on toward him.

The rumour was that she was completely melted in the pool of acid.

I saw the photos today and she wasn't all melted but it was pretty bad.
A policeman attending the scene was also badly injured. He suffered damaged lungs when he breathed in the fumes and badly burned feet when he stood in the pool of Oleum. He was off work for nine months.

I was taught that it was this incident that paved the way for a set of regulations covering the movement of hazardous materials now known as "The Carriage Regs"

I'm going back to the revision books so Ill post another update tomorrow.