The US Department of Transportation is fairly unforgiving when it comes to violations of the HMR as this potentially puts the public at direct risk. Non-compliances (errors) can subject the shipper to substantial civil penalties (fines) and range from $493 for training related offenses up to a statutory limit of $81,993 per offense, per day if the offense continues. If the offense results in “…death, serious illness, or severe injury to any person or substantial destruction of property…”, the maximum is increased to $193,316 per offense, per day. Willful or reckless violations of the HMR can also incur criminal penalties to include fines and incarceration of up to 5 years. This limit is increased to 10 years if the incident results to death or bodily injury to any person. As you can see, this is a very serious matter that is not to be trifled with.