Asleep at the wheel

Interesting story:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/2340613/Dozing-drivers-train-ran-on-for-15km

Frightening stuff!

Nicest country I've ever visited but I don't know much about the rail system there.

That had to be a rude awakening!

Yikes!! I remember watching a TV show once about when a sleep deprived engineer on a CN freight hit a VIA Rail passenger train... Unfortunantly, that one didn't turn out as well as this incident... Needless to say, exhausted crews shouldn't be forced to go to work!

i go to work all the time exhausted, or return home exhausted

I used to drive trains there long ago. I can certainly tell you some strange sleep stories...

I never slept through a red light but early one morning (we'd been out all night) we were approaching a notorious junction when we must have dozed off. I woke up to see a red signal barely an engine length in front of us getting closer very quickly. By the time I had shouted to my mate and he'd started moving the brake valve the light flicked yellow just as we whizzed past it. For the rest of the journey into town we were both wide awake.

Button push vigilance devices can easily be got around with farmyard ingenuity. A crew heading south on the new fangled diesels (they were both long time steam loco men) had rigged up a series of rods and levers that was worked from the air operated windscreen wipers. It was set to cancel the device every 40 seconds or so, so that no irritating warning lights or shrieking whistles would be activated. Under these restful conditions the two sleepyheads nodded off.

Unfortunately for them the line was operated under tablet working (similar to staff or token I guess). These were exchanged at stations at speed using a cunning fork device like a harpoon. They journeyed on fast asleep collecting tablets. After they had about six of the jolly things hanging on to the harpoon, the station staff decided they should do something about it. Detonators eventually woke the crew up and the train was stopped. Unfortunately because the crew were not putting off the tablets at each station when finished with them, no other tablets could be released until all of the collected tablets had been returned to their relevant stations. Nothing could move until that had happened.

We used to have a form nicknamed a "Please Explain..." I'm sure you can work out the rest! :hehe:




Cheers

Nix

Never drive a train, tram, bus or taxi (or car or any other vehicle) when you haven't gotten enough sleep.

I learnt that by falling asleep while playing a car racing game! :hehe:

tdstaylor said:

Yikes!! I remember watching a TV show once about when a sleep deprived engineer on a CN freight hit a VIA Rail passenger train... Unfortunantly, that one didn't turn out as well as this incident... Needless to say, exhausted crews shouldn't be forced to go to work!

Click to expand...

Ya the Hinton BC train collision between the VIA Rail Canadian #1 and a CN Freight. The driver fell asleep at the wheel, ran a red, and smacked right into the oncoming VIA. The crewmen (well no duh), 90% (I think) of everyone on the VIA Train and the crew on the CN (again no duh) died.

:'(

Crews need sleep!!

cam

All in favour!

All in favour of Applegathc say Aye!

aye.
aye.
aye.
aye.
aye.
aye.
aye.

We have declared whatever said by whoever it was is true.

FlyingScottmond said:

All in favour of Applegathc say Aye!

aye.
aye.
aye.
aye.
aye.
aye.
aye.

We have declared whatever said by whoever it was is true.

Click to expand...

Aye.

Maybe an electric shock alerter would be a good idea. If you do not respond to an alerter after thirty seconds, then your seat is electrified briefly.

I was going to ask if you've ever done shift work but your postings clearly inform me that you haven't...

You might wanna see if you can cut the mustard before you offer an opinion.



Cheers

Nix

Midland said:

I was going to ask if you've ever done shift work but your postings clearly inform me that you haven't...

You might wanna see if you can cut the mustard before you offer an opinion.



Cheers

Nix

Click to expand...

I have never worked full time in my life... I am only 17!

However, I have cut mustard many times before.

Like this:

Ronayne said:

Never drive a train, tram, bus or taxi (or car or any other vehicle) when you haven't gotten enough sleep.

I learnt that by falling asleep while playing a car racing game! :hehe:

Click to expand...

i've fallen asleep while playing nascar 2009.:hehe:

The facts about the Hinton rail disaster:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinton_train_collision

I remember the first night I got MSTS, I played it until late into the night. I woke up about 3AM rocketing down the mountains of Marias Pass!

Its not just a case of getting enough sleep, when it got busy ( wheat season in Vic) you would have the 11 hours off as regulations state, trouble is that was exactly what you got, knock of at 17:11 (5:11pm) and you would be starting the next shift at 04:11, then work maybe 15 hours and knock off at 19:15 (7:15pm), start again at 06:15 work in the yard so only 7.5 hours, so knock off at 13:45 (1:15pm), start again at 00:15, finish say 10:00, so the next start would be 21:00 (9:00 pm) and so it would continue for about six months with a good harvest, you try sleeping at a different time each and every day.
While the above has changed a lot nowadays the shifts are still irregular and if anyone on a regular shift roster thinks they have it hard sleep wise try the above, vigilance control systems are on the loco's because the crew DO drift off to sleep without them.
The crews that are involved in collisions due to falling to sleep are only the ones that fell to sleep at the wrong time, all railways have this problem, and there is no answer.
Place your self in a situation where there is nothing to do other than look out for signals every now and then plus the odd road crossing, now have the drone of a diesel revving at a constant rate that also causes your seat to vibrate in a relaxing manner, add to that mix a nice warm cabin, see how long it is before your mind starts to drift, followed by you falling asleep without even realizing it

Cheers David

Captain_Collins said:

Aye.

Maybe an electric shock alerter would be a good idea. If you do not respond to an alerter after thirty seconds, then your seat is electrified briefly.

Click to expand...

Shocking idea. Sorry, couldn't resist. I just lost my career as an over-the-road truck driver (insulin dependency), and I am offering my opinion in that vein. I would think a shock in the britches could cause an over-reaction, possibly whip-tailing a vehicle into an uncontrollable swerve... In some cases, even a mild shock can cause a temporary paralysis - I once lost use of my left arm for about 20 minutes because of a short in a floor lamp.

I agree there need to be ways to help situations as described in the article from happening again, but not if the solution could be worse than the initial problem.

Thunderchild177 said:

Shocking idea. Sorry, couldn't resist. I just lost my career as an over-the-road truck driver (insulin dependency), and I am offering my opinion in that vein. I would think a shock in the britches could cause an over-reaction, possibly whip-tailing a vehicle into an uncontrollable swerve... In some cases, even a mild shock can cause a temporary paralysis - I once lost use of my left arm for about 20 minutes because of a short in a floor lamp.

I agree there need to be ways to help situations as described in the article from happening again, but not if the solution could be worse than the initial problem.

Click to expand...

Okay, okay, I get the point, it's a bad idea!:'(

I only intended it as a semi-joke!:'(

Sorry!

Although I have not worked in or around the railroad, our Light rail subway system here has a great way to avoid drivers falling asleep. Not only do the cabs have the usual deadman pedal and button. They have track speed and signal controls mounted in between the rails at each signal and speed sign, if a train runs the red signal or is over the speed limit it automatically puts on the breaks of the train and these are not normal breaks they are electric magnets that clamp down directly on the rails between each set of boogies stopping the entire train in under 5 seconds at 60kph With passengers this can be quite the frightening experience and the driver gets in big trouble.