HUIXIAN

The Singapore Civil Defence Force will from April be able to immobilise vehicles carrying hazardous materials (Hazmat) that may be used as terrorist weapons.

The movement and location of all vehicles carrying hazardous materials are now being tracked by the Singapore Civil Defence Force.

But it does not have the means presently to immobilise these vehicles for security reasons.

Phase Two of the Hazmat Transport Vehicle Tracking System (or HTVTS) will allow it to do that.

Phase One was implemented on 1 July 2005.

Then a GPS-based HTVTS was implemented to track the movements of all local and foreign -registered Hazmat vehicles carrying large quantities of toxic or flammable materials to prevent the possibility of terror attacks using Hazmat vehicles as weapons of mass destruction.

Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, said: "Currently, while the tracking system can detect an errant Hazmat vehicle, it cannot immobilise the vehicle to prevent a determined terrorist from driving it into a target. Hence, we now have plans to roll out the progressive installation of immobilisers on these Hazmat vehicles to enable SCDF to remotely activate them to stop the vehicles by shutting down the engine safely."

Some 660 Hazmat transport vehicles plying Singapore's roads, including foreign-registered ones, will be required to install the immobiliser system.

The implementation will be done over a one-year period, beginning April 1st.

This is to give the companies greater flexibility in scheduling their vehicles for the installation of the device.

58 Hazmat transport companies operating in Singapore will have to comply with the new rules.

The SCDF had conducted several road tests to ensure the immobiliser system works under varying conditions.

Reactions of the surrounding traffic as well as the speed and feasibility of the immobiliser system were observed.

It was found that the activation of the horn and hazard warning lights, together with the immobilisation, will alert other motorists of the Hazmat vehicle that is being progressively slowed down.