NZ - Dozing driver's train ran on for 15km

[John Ashworth]

Dozing driver's train ran on for 15km

By KERRY WILLIAMSON - The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 17/04/2009


A driver dozed for nearly 30 minutes as his fully laden freight train travelled for 15 kilometres down tracks it had no permission to be on.

The "extreme sleepiness" of the driver could easily have led to disaster if another train had been on the tracks, and he suffered from previously undiagnosed sleep apnoea, an investigation reveals. He had probably been dozing into micro-sleeps for about 85km of the journey, during which time he was woken by an alarm in his cab.

The 450-metre-long train, hauling 1100 tonnes of freight, was heading to Picton on May 12, 2007, when it failed to stop at Seddon and came to a halt only when the driver answered a radio call from train control and realised something was wrong, 28 minutes later.

In a report issued yesterday the Transport Accident Investigation Commission called for changes in the way trains are monitored while moving, and in the way drivers are tested for sleep disorders.

The driver, a 28-year rail veteran and a team leader locomotive engineer, had been awake for more than 20 hours leading up to the incident, had not eaten enough or had enough fluid, and had not taken the required breaks.

He said later he could not recall anything during the 15km journey from Seddon towards Vernon, on the main north line.

The report says: "The locomotive engineer realised that `I was where I shouldn't be' when he answered the radio call from train control. "The locomotive engineer's loss of awareness prompted a close look at the role of sleep deprivation and fatigue in this incident."

The report suggests the incident, and others like it, could have been avoided had the rail industry used its computerised vigilance systems to full potential.

The commission investigated five similar incidents between 2000 and 2002 that involved three derailments and two collisions, caused by, among other things, micro-sleeps and fatigue.

Toll Rail, now part of KiwiRail, said that, from a staff of about 500 locomotive engineers, about six were referred to a sleep clinic each year. Most returned to driving.