Lombardia Informatica - on behalf of the Lombardy Region and the Ministry of Transport and with the contribution of ENI and Politecnico di Milano - has developed, in cooperation with CEFRIEL, a system that is able to keep the transportation of dangerous goods steady under control, so to prevent or immediately point out risky situations.

Temperature and load pressure, together with traffic conditions and road dangerousness are some of the critical factors that an innovative safety system, developed by Lombardia Informatica in cooperation with CEFRIEL, will keep under steady control.
The purpose of this experimentation, promoted and agreed with the Lombardy Region and Italian Ministry of Transport, is to minimize risks during the transportation of goods classified as dangerous (petrol, GPL, methane, etc.). "From the year 2000 up to now the EU has introduced a considerable amount of laws about the transportation of dangerous goods", says Diego Vaccari - responsible for the project on behalf of Lombardia Informatica. "This system is able to minimize the risks by continuously monitoring the transport and keeping informed all the people responsible for the transport safety". Lombardia Informatica, with CEFRIEL's support, has designed and developed the first prototype of this information system which is currently under test in the Public Protection's operative room of Lombardy Region. The system is based on a specifically designed equipment placed into the truck and on a remote control centre which is able to gather all the necessary data and evaluate the level of risks. The truck has on board a set of sensors that measure all the data which may influence the transport safety: temperature and load pressure, vehicle speed, inclination, acceleration, but also weather and road conditions.
A GPS module determines the vehicle position. Then all sensors' data and position are conveyed through a GPRS module to the control centre, for example to the Public Protection's operative room.

The central system acquires all the data from the vehicle together with its mission form (name of the driver, destination, estimated time, load type, etc.). Then it processes the information and immediately highlights possible alarms, as for instance the automatic detection of anomalous or emergency situations. The alarms can be of various types: alphanumeric (alarm situation is determined by one or more alphanumeric data, i.e. temperature levels), geographical or positional (for example the proximity of chemical plants) or mixed (as for example exceeding speed limits, which depends of course on the conditions of the road). All the collected data, both about the vehicle and the goods, are then gathered into a database that can be consulted for immediate operative use (i.e. for alarm handling) or for subsequent analysis. Road transport in Italy, especially in Lombardy, is today very intense. The quantity of dangerous materials moved around has reached critical levels. The new monitoring system does not solve the cause of the problem (that would require alternative rail or ship transportation), but it certainly introduces higher levels of control, prevention and safety.