Train Accident Newsroom

Fatigue Is Railroad Safety Topic

Fatigue has long been a fact of life for many railroad operating employees, given their long and often unpredictable work hours and fluctuating schedules. The hours of service law sets certainmaximum on-duty periods (generally 12 hours for operating employees) and off-duty periods (generally 8 hours, or if the employee has worked 12 consecutive hours, a 10-hour off-duty period is required).

FRA’s knowledge of the industry’s work patterns and the developing science of fatigue mitigation, combined with certain National Transportation Safety Board investigations showing employee fatigue as a major factor, have persuaded FRA that fatigue is very likely at least a contributing factor in a significant number of human factor accidents. To try to obtain better information on the subject, FRA revised its own accident investigation procedures in 2004 to ensure that FRA investigators collect information on employees’ sleep/rest cycles and evaluate fatigue as a factor.

Accelerate research. FRA is accelerating its ongoing research aimed at validating and calibrating a fatigue model (which has already been proven in the laboratory by the Department of Defense) that can be used to (I) more precisely determine the role of fatigue in human factors accidents and (ii) improve crew scheduling by evaluating the potential for fatigue given actual crew management practices. When the model is properly validated, it will be made available to
railroads and their employees as foundation for developing crew scheduling practices based on the best current science. The work plan for model validation will also provide a much more