The state of the practice for obtaining chemical reference at a typical hazardous materials transportation accident scene is to consult multiple printed references. This often leads to confusion. This paper describes the design and development of a centralized response database. This is accomplished by identifying the most commonly used emergency response databases for all modes of transportation, developing relationships between the data, and building intuitive interfaces that allow for rapid information retrieval. The tool is subsequently applied to a previous accident to demonstrate the value-added from its availability in a response scenario. By combining all datasets in one application, data redundancy, errors and lags between updates of the data sets can be reduced. The linkages between the database and supporting files enables the data to be easily updated. While the database is designed to aid response to marine transportation accidents, the tool could also be applied to other modes of transportation. Moreover, facility and vessel operators could benefit from having a comprehensive chemical source accessible in case of release or human contact with the material. Finally, the inclusion of commodity flow information enables decision makers to prepare for high risk commodities. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.