1. Research into fatigue on the railway
Dan Basacik and Michael Woods, RSSB
15th National Health and Safety Advisory Conference
22 February 2017

2. Why fatigue management is so important?
Railways combine some of the most demanding characteristics which can lead to fatigue:
Safety critical industry using fast moving machinery
24 hours a day, seven days a week and signing on times can vary
Widely spread geographically, and many have to travel long distances to worksites
Many different employers; some working practices and arrangements are better than others
Natural conflict between normal train services and activities needed to maintain the tracks
Many of our staff are ageing, with a reduced ability to cope with shift work; others have young families, who can disrupt sleep patterns

3. How big an impact does fatigue have on railway operations?
‘Analysis identified fatigue as a factor in 21% of … incidents; however, the relevant check box in SMIS was only marked for 1% of incidents’
‘Home-life related fatigue was the most cited reason for the fatigue (40%) followed by work-related fatigue (38%).’
‘Relevant fields for fatigue are often not completed in SMIS…’
Available on the RSSB website

4. What can happen if we get fatigued?

5. Fatigue can be a hidden contributory factor

6. Fatigue in transport more generally 1
‘…pilot fatigue can present a risk to flight safety - a risk that needs to be managed at company, national and European level’ ‘Safety experts reckon that pilot fatigue contributes to 15-20% of fatal aviation accidents caused by human error.’

7. Fatigue in transport more generally 2
Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in 1989: The watchkeeper had only had 5 or 6 hours of sleep in the 24 hours prior to the grounding The grounding of the feeder containership Cita in 1997: The mate fell asleep and the ship sailed for two and a half hours with no one in control.

8. Fatigue in transport more generally 3
Many examples of fatigue affecting road drivers, leading to:
Road traffic accidents
…but also rail accidents
The Selby rail crash
Great Heck, near Selby, North Yorkshire: 28 February 2001.
Ten people died and 82 people suffered serious injuries.
The root cause was, ultimately, fatigue.

9. Past research
We’ve done plenty of research in the past into the fatigue issue:
T059 Human factors study of fatigue and shift work
T299 Human factors study of obstructive sleep apnoea in train drivers
T699 Fatigue and shiftwork for freight locomotive drivers and contract trackworkers
T997: Managing occupational road risk associated with road vehicle driver fatigue
T1082: Developing fitness for duty checks and predicting the likelihood of experiencing fatigue
T1083: Preparing rail industry guidance on biomathematical fatigue models
T1084: Preparing rail industry guidance on first night shifts
This is all available on our SPARK web portal (access via the RSSB website)

10. How tired are we?

11. What is driving fatigue (in our industry)?
Shift system:
Start time
Shift length
Rotation
Rest period
Recovery time
Breaks
Job factors:
Workload
Difficulty
Working environment
Task familiarity
Individual:
Age
Body clock
Personality
Fitness & health
Domestic arrangements
How much sleep we get
How mentally tired we get
How physically tired we get

12. How does fatigue affect people?
Comparing people who are tired to people who are at the drink drive limit for alcohol
Reaction time, hand-eye co-ordination, vigilance, splitting attention between tasks, etc
People who have been awake hours straight, perform as badly as people who are at the drink drive limit.

13. How does fatigue affect people?
Degraded visual performance (I can’t see straight)
Degraded cognitive performance (I can’t think straight)
Reduced vigilance (I can’t pay attention)
Increased errors (I can’t do anything right)
Longer to respond (I can’t do anything quickly)

14. Fatigue and health Insomnia Sleep apnoea Chronic fatigue syndrome
Poor health
50+ hours of work per week
Less then 6 hours of sleep a night
Frequent sleep complaints
Heart disease
Diabetes
Gastrointestinal trouble
Musculoskeletal troubles
Poor mental health

15. What should companies do?
Take action when workers are fatigued
Monitor
Provide information to safety critical workers
Record the arrangements
Consult with safety critical workers
Limit exceedances
Set standards and define working patterns
Identify safety critical workers affected
Don’t forget your role and your union’s role in this process!!

16. What works for people?

17. What works for people? Knowing how your body works
Recognising health problems and getting help for them
Getting enough, good quality sleep!!
Taking naps to top up sleep
Breaks
Etc.
…easily said.

18. Thank you