§397.7 restricts where a motor vehicle carrying hazardous materials may be parked, and it draws a sharp line between explosives and everything else.
Division 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 (explosives) — §397.7(a). The vehicle must not be parked:
- on or within 5 feet of the traveled portion of a public street or highway (§397.7(a)(1));
- on private property — including the premises of a fueling or eating facility — without the knowledge and consent of the person in charge of the property, who must be aware of the nature of the hazardous materials on board (§397.7(a)(2));
- within 300 feet of a bridge, tunnel, dwelling, or place where people work, congregate, or assemble, except for brief periods when the necessities of operation require it and no other parking place is practicable (§397.7(a)(3)).
All other hazardous materials — §397.7(b). The vehicle must not be parked on or within 5 feet of the traveled portion of a public street or highway, except for brief periods when the necessities of operation require it and no other parking place is practicable.
Two neighboring sections are often cited alongside §397.7 and are easy to confuse with it. §397.11(b) prohibits parking a vehicle containing hazardous materials within 300 feet of an open fire. §397.5 sets the attendance rules: a vehicle containing Division 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 materials must be attended at all times (§397.5(a), with the §397.5(b) exceptions for carrier, shipper, or consignee property and safe havens), and a vehicle containing any other hazardous material that is on a public street, highway, or shoulder must be attended by its driver (§397.5(c)).
Severity
Severity weight 6 in the Hazardous Materials Compliance BASIC — SMS Appendix A (version 3.21, revised May 2026) lists §397.7(a), §397.7(b), and the four detailed parking codes in the "Fire Hazard - HM" group at 6. Hazardous materials civil penalties are set by 49 U.S.C. 5123 and assessed under 49 CFR Part 107, subpart D — §107.329(a) currently caps them at $102,348 per violation, rising to $238,809 where a violation results in death, serious illness, severe injury, or substantial destruction of property, with each day of a continuing violation a separate offense.
How to prevent it
- Hazmat employees, drivers included, need the training in 49 CFR §172.704, with recurrent training at least once every three years (§172.704(c)(2)). Make the §397.7(a)/(b) split part of it: explosives drivers carry three restrictions, everyone else carries one.
- Pre-plan routes and overnight parking with facilities that know the load. States and Indian tribes may designate non-radioactive hazardous materials routes under the §397.71 Federal standards — check them when planning.
- "Brief periods when the necessities of operation require it" is the only exception in the section. It is not a general permission to stop on the shoulder, and it never lifts the §397.5 attendance duty.
How Roadworthy HQ helps
A §397.7 citation lands on the driver. Roadworthy HQ does not record individual violation codes, pull CSA or SMS scores, or track coaching. What it keeps is the driver file an auditor opens next: the annual MVR and the §391.25 annual review, each with reminders 60, 30, and 7 days out, and the qualification-file documents with their retention periods enforced. If the citation came from a roadside inspection, log that inspection on the vehicle (date, state, level, driver, number of violations, out-of-service or not). Record the hazmat endorsement on the driver's profile. Roadworthy HQ has no separate record type for §172.704 hazmat training, so keep those certificates with your training files.