Night shift fatigue (RAIB report)

[IKB]

When I was involved with Track Renewals as a Site Engineer, it was quite common for me to turn up at the office in a morning and nearly complete a full day in the office before the phone rang and the booked night shift Tech dropped out.
Could I cover the job?
So 07.30 - 15.00 then a couple of hours kip, 2 - 3 if lucky then out on site 21.00 - 07.00
When booked on nights myself, I could never get a full 8 hours before or after a shift but used to do 2 - 3 hours if possible before and maybe 4 when I got home. I often heard every presenter on R2 over a 24 hour period.

The worst shifts were on blockades when instead of 8 hour shifts on site, 06.00 - 14.00 - 22.00 - 06.00 someone decreed we would do 9 hours on site which meant every day we rolled 3 hours forward 06.00 - 15.00 - 00.01 - 09.00.
By the end of 9 days you did not know what day it was.
Never doing that again.

Take my hat off to the "orange army" doing infrastructure work. Doing a night shift is one thing, doing a night shift which involves hard labour is something else.

 

[Qwerty133]

I doubt it. The unfortunate Driver was apparently on her initial night shift following a period of rest days, so it's likely the TOC will point the finger firmly at her and suggest she didn't prepare herself. Don't forget a tired Driver on Tramlink killed people, and the operator's answer apparently was to install cameras to spy on anyone who wasn't wide awake. That speaks volumes, regretfully.

To be fair if trains need to be driven at night someone has to do the shift, so short of a permanent nights roster that nobody wants and would cause all sorts of problems with regards to keeping route knowledge during extended night closures, theres not much more a TOC can do than have the nights after a period of rest days. Considering some of the things I've seen elsewhere about what some people seem to think can be done on the day before a night shift there may be at least some truth in the driver not preparing correctly (for example some people apparently think its acceptable to have sole care of small children all day before working all night).

 

[EM2]

Those of us that do nights, how do you arrange your days?
There's a few schools of thought:

• One says that you should eat appropriate to the time of day, i.e. breakfast when you get home in the morning, and dinner before you go to work.
• Another says eat appropriate to your body clock, i.e. dinner when you get home in the morning and breakfast before you go to work.
• With sleep, do you go to bed not long after you get home, and get up mid-afternoon?
• Or stay up a while, and then get up not long before work (like you would in a 9-5)?
• There's another idea that you should split your sleep - a few hours when you get home, be up for a few hours, then back to bed, then work.

Personally, I eat breakfast when I get home and dinner before work (or at work if it's a twelve-hour) & I go to bed about an hour after getting home and then get up after eight hours (if I haven't woken up earlier).
I tried the 'split sleep' idea, and it completely screwed me up.

 

[Tubeboy]

Another railway shift worker. Station Supervisor. It's not so much the shifts per se that's the issue, it's the pattern changing every week. You sort of get used to the pattern you're on, and then it changes. Start 7 night shifts, 2300-0700 tomorrow. Finish Tuesday morning, which is then classed as my rest day. Wednesday is my only proper day off. Back to a week of 1500-2300 shifts, a couple of days off then a week of my least favourite shifts, 0700-1500. Few days off then back to the nights again.

Tomorrow evening, I'll go to bed about 1800, sleep until 2100, then get ready for work. Like others have said, worst time for fatigue on nights for me is betweeen 0300-0400. So I'll walk around the station. As the weather is getting colder, that's a good thing. Wake you up better.

When I get home, I'll go bed within an hour, sleep until about 1300-1400. Then go back to bed about 1800-1900 for a few hours. I used to sleep from 0800-1700 then just stay up, by midnight I'd be shattered, so I now split sleep. It works well for me.

Eating wise, I don't eat much on nights. Have a fairly big breakfast when I get up at lunchtime. Cereal, few slices of toast, couple of boiled eggs. Then bring some chicken salad/fruit to work. When I get home, sometimes I might have some cereal.

 

[Chrisgr31]

My wife is a community midwife - she did 0800 to 1800 yesterday , with no real breaks and was first on call - called out to the other end of the county at 2045 , did the neccessary and then before returning home had another job come in at 0400 , and was home at 0935 this morning. That is not safe , especially driving back in peak traffic after that amount of night work on top of a long day , which had in itself been preceded by 3 long days.

She was booked to work today and clearly did not , there will be an inevitable backlog to do on Tuesday. She retires in 12 months , and will not miss the long days or especially the "on call" rota. One never sleeps properly on those instances anyway , as I found out in my so called career , dealing with at one time 1 in 3 , and later, permenant , though not reactive call out.

My wife is also a community midwife although also works in a birthing centre, and only does the equivalent of 3 days a week. However she has also has had days like the one you mention, working all day then getting called and working all night. Then in theory being on duty the next day, but obviously unable to do it. Pay is then docked for not working when in my opinion the fact they have been called out and can’t work is not their fault so they should be paid. She changed health authority recently and the new authority does restrict the number of hours they can do, so the other day she found herself calling someone in at 3am to replace her as she was out of hours.

 

[Chrisgr31]

I doubt it. The unfortunate Driver was apparently on her initial night shift following a period of rest days, so it's likely the TOC will point the finger firmly at her and suggest she didn't prepare herself. Don't forget a tired Driver on Tramlink killed people, and the operator's answer apparently was to install cameras to spy on anyone who wasn't wide awake. That speaks volumes, regretfully.

Whilst I suspect you are right the report does state that her shift did not comply with latest guidance. That makes me wonder if she could claim against the TOC? I also wonder whether the TOC could be prosecuted?

 

[JetStream]

Those of us that do nights, how do you arrange your days?
There's a few schools of thought:

• One says that you should eat appropriate to the time of day, i.e. breakfast when you get home in the morning, and dinner before you go to work.
• Another says eat appropriate to your body clock, i.e. dinner when you get home in the morning and breakfast before you go to work.
• With sleep, do you go to bed not long after you get home, and get up mid-afternoon?
• Or stay up a while, and then get up not long before work (like you would in a 9-5)?
• There's another idea that you should split your sleep - a few hours when you get home, be up for a few hours, then back to bed, then work.

Personally, I eat breakfast when I get home and dinner before work (or at work if it's a twelve-hour) & I go to bed about an hour after getting home and then get up after eight hours (if I haven't woken up earlier).
I tried the 'split sleep' idea, and it completely screwed me up.

I'd be interested to see the responses.

I thought about having a "second watch", so if I woke up at 3pm, I'd treat it as 7am, and adjust from there on in.

Last time I worked full on nights (6pm-6am) I slept from 8am to 4pm. Sounds weird to type that out again!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

My wife is also a community midwife although also works in a birthing centre, and only does the equivalent of 3 days a week. However she has also has had days like the one you mention, working all day then getting called and working all night. Then in theory being on duty the next day, but obviously unable to do it. Pay is then docked for not working when in my opinion the fact they have been called out and can’t work is not their fault so they should be paid. She changed health authority recently and the new authority does restrict the number of hours they can do, so the other day she found herself calling someone in at 3am to replace her as she was out of hours.

No - they are sensible on not working after a night out on duty , - but the team is excellent and they all support each other. Despite the gruelling day and night , the results were extremely positive. Very satisfied with that as it is such an important and personal job. Midwives are like railway staff , they support and look after each other - whilst providing the best possible service to the community. I really mean that.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Tomorrow evening, I'll go to bed about 1800, sleep until 2100, then get ready for work. Like others have said, worst time for fatigue on nights for me is betweeen 0300-0400. So I'll walk around the station. As the weather is getting colder, that's a good thing. Wake you up better.

I used to walk around the yard and do the vehicle checks in the small hours , making sure the actual vehicles corresponded to the computer records , partly to make the am shift better for the relief , and partly to stave off fatigue and the desparate need to get one's head down. Brake van checks was a good thing to do in the small hours !

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Take my hat off to the "orange army" doing infrastructure work. Doing a night shift is one thing, doing a night shift which involves hard labour is something else.

I agree - and the hard manual work on the Tube track wise is a class of work on its own , as they cannot get the benefit of big machinery down there , and it must get really hot ...

 

[Surreytraveller]

There's no easy answer. I find its the chopping and changing which knackers me - doing one shift all the time would be easier, but it would be difficult to find enough people to do permanent lates or permanent nights. And different shift patterns which would suit one person wouldn't suit the next. And you cannot force your body to sleep - of you are not tired before your first night shift, you ain't going to be able to sleep.
The only answer would be to either go sick if you are not rested enough, or to state you haven't had enough rest when you book on, and let a manager make the decision for you. Which will cause trains to be cancelled.

 

[Bromley boy]

It's a killer. And getting worse. I can feel it altering my DNA these days . It's become impossible to share a bed . You can finish early hours Sunday and then be in at Dawns crack on Monday . I have no hesitation whatsoever in calling in on turns like this and saying : I'm too tired . I won't be in. I'm sure it makes me unpopular but a buffer stop collision would make me more unpopular. It's daft, another example of how the railway is stuck in the dark ages. I'm supposed to be on a 4 day week so how come I end up in work for 7 days on the bounce ?

It’s the right thing to do.

Out of interest what happens when you say you’re too tired? Do they dock you pay or treat it as sick leave?

They certainly shouldn’t but, as you say, the railway is a bit old fashioned when it comes to stuff like this...

 

[Surreytraveller]

(for example some people apparently think its acceptable to have sole care of small children all day before working all night).

In fact, some people volunteer to work nights specifically to facilitate childcare arrangements. A lot of people don't have viable alternatives.

 

[bramling]

It’s the right thing to do.

Out of interest what happens when you say you’re too tired? Do they dock you pay or treat it as sick leave?

They certainly shouldn’t but, as you say, the railway is a bit old fashioned when it comes to stuff like this...

Virtually all of the time, if someone turns up at the counter and says they’re tired, the standard response will be “are you fit for duty - yes or no?”. If the answer is yes that will probably be the end of the discussion, if the answer is no then the conversation may continue in one of a few grades of politeness, but ending in one of two ways, either the employee changes their answer to yes then the previous applies, or they end up going home and being off sick.

 

[bramling]

In fact, some people volunteer to work nights specifically to facilitate childcare arrangements. A lot of people don't have viable alternatives.

Which leads to a problem as some of these individuals expect to lead a normal life during the daytime, and banking on the likelihood that they won’t have to do much work at night. An operating incident in the making unfortunately.

 

[Qwerty133]

In fact, some people volunteer to work nights specifically to facilitate childcare arrangements. A lot of people don't have viable alternatives.

Such people should choose to work in a job where they aren't risking other peoples lives if they want to be idiotic enough to basically live without sleeping for a number of days at a time. If you wish to work a safety critical job some responsibilities come with it and that includes turning up for work well rested.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

extra staff required for GPR cover.

What's 'GPR' short for?

 

[EM2]

What's 'GPR' short for?

General Purpose Relief.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Such people should choose to work in a job where they aren't risking other peoples lives if they want to be idiotic enough to basically live without sleeping for a number of days at a time. If you wish to work a safety critical job some responsibilities come with it and that includes turning up for work well rested.

I don't disagree, but for some people life isn't that simple

 

[Spankthemonkey]

Which of course should be illegal! If railway staff, bus drivers, lorry drivers, pilots and so on have safety cushions around working hours, then I'm damned sure nurses should! Utterly shameful.

Where do you draw the line at what is safety critical? In hospitality chefs work 80+ hrs a week in dangerous environments and feeding hundreds of people, a mistake could cause a mass food poisoning outbreak or worse. Surely the answer is to have minimum rest breaks as a standard accross all jobs in all industries and you cannot "opt out" of it.

 

[BestWestern]

Where do you draw the line at what is safety critical? In hospitality chefs work 80+ hrs a week in dangerous environments and feeding hundreds of people, a mistake could cause a mass food poisoning outbreak or worse. Surely the answer is to have minimum rest breaks as a standard accross all jobs in all industries and you cannot "opt out" of it.

I think administering life saving - and potentially life ending - drugs is rather close to the top of the list of what should be deemed safety critical.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Such people should choose to work in a job where they aren't risking other peoples lives if they want to be idiotic enough to basically live without sleeping for a number of days at a time. If you wish to work a safety critical job some responsibilities come with it and that includes turning up for work well rested.

Indeed, though as with driving cars there is basically no way to quantify it reliably.

If it was possible to do so, driving tired (even in a car) would be as illegal as drink-driving.

 

[Spankthemonkey]

Indeed, though as with driving cars there is basically no way to quantify it reliably.

If it was possible to do so, driving tired (even in a car) would be as illegal as drink-driving.

That chap that caused the Selby Rail crash was prosecuted for something like that?

 

[Bletchleyite]

That chap that caused the Selby Rail crash was prosecuted for something like that?

He was, but he had to crash first. You can prosecute drink drivers before they get chance to kill anyone. You can't do that for tired drivers unless they are obviously driving erratically (and DWDCAA is quite hard to get to stick absent an actual accident of some kind).

 

[Llanigraham]

My Box, and others in the area work 0600 - 1800 - 0600, although local arrangements were a change over 30 minutes earlier.
With an hours journey to work I used to find the day shift far more tiring than the night shift. Getting up at 0415 was a beggar!!

On nights I used to get home around 0630 and go straight to bed, waking up around 1300 and having lunch. I would then leave home around 1615 (congestion!) and hope to eat an evening meal in the Box around 2000. Snacking was sometimes the only way to get through.

On days I would get up and go straight to work and have breakfast around 0830 when there was normally a small lull in the service. Lunch would be eaten on the hoof! I'd get home around 1830, have an evening meal and be in bed normally by 2130.

I will admit to driving home on autopilot a few times, but normally after a day shift. I suppose the difference was that a night shift was not so intense so I was more awake. Never had a problem going to sleep in the mornings.

Social life.............non-existent!
And we ended up in separate beds whilst I was on shift! less disturbed sleep patterns.

Biggest problem I found was eating cr@p and snacks, resulting me putting on weight, because there was never time to have proper meal breaks, everything had to be prepared and eaten between trains.

 

[theblackwatch]

I doubt it. The unfortunate Driver was apparently on her initial night shift following a period of rest days, so it's likely the TOC will point the finger firmly at her and suggest she didn't prepare herself. Don't forget a tired Driver on Tramlink killed people, and the operator's answer apparently was to install cameras to spy on anyone who wasn't wide awake. That speaks volumes, regretfully.

At the same time, the TOC has to take some responsibility for its failure to adhere to the RSSB's guidance document. I would hope that ensuring shift patterns follow this guidance is something the driver's union will be pushing for/talking to GTR about.

 

[philthetube]

Take my hat off to the "orange army" doing infrastructure work. Doing a night shift is one thing, doing a night shift which involves hard labour is something else.

I would disagree with that, if doing manual work the opportunity is not there to sleep, sat in a comfortable warm cab it is very easy to doze off, I know after my last night shift I can go out for the day, maybe a long walk without difficulty, but I cannot stay home and watch the T.V. without falling asleep.

I am not saying that the orange army dont work hard or it is easy for them to work nights however.

 

[Bromley boy]

Virtually all of the time, if someone turns up at the counter and says they’re tired, the standard response will be “are you fit for duty - yes or no?”. If the answer is yes that will probably be the end of the discussion, if the answer is no then the conversation may continue in one of a few grades of politeness, but ending in one of two ways, either the employee changes their answer to yes then the previous applies, or they end up going home and being off sick.

I’ve heard mention at my place of “fatigue days” where there is apparently an allowance of a certain number of days year where drivers may declare they are too fatigued to drive. You still have to show up at the depot and book on. No idea if it’s true or not but I am trying to find out (I’ve not seen anything in writing and it may be the usual mess room rubbish).

Needless to say “fatigue days” are not something management ever discuss, for all the lip service paid to safety. I wonder how many incidents this type of culture has led to - the Croydon tram crash being an obvious one, in addition to the recent buffer stop crash.

If I’m ever in that position where someone tries to bully me into driving when I’m too tired I’ll ask them (over the recorded phone line) whether they are asking me to do something unsafe.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

I think administering life saving - and potentially life ending - drugs is rather close to the top of the list of what should be deemed safety critical.

I would agree, however the health service has nowhere near the same protection that the railway industry has. I did 48 hours of night shifts last week (not including the hour or two late home because you can't simply drop everything and go, and no breaks at all on any of them), and this week I'll do an early, a late, a day off, and then two nights. All planned to be 12 hours long. The longest shift I've done was 17 hours with no break. I got home at 11 in the morning after being due to finish at 0630, and was planned to be back in for 1830 that evening.

In terms of night-only rosters, we did have some and they were actually fairly popular. Those that worked that roster were always far more rested and alert than those who continually swapped between them.

 

[alxndr]

I vastly prefer nights, whether they’re 8 hour or 12 hour, over earlies. No matter how much sleep I get, earlies wreck me. I’ll be home at 1400, full of good intentions, and then invariably end up asleep on the sofa or just laying down for a moment...

The only time nights get to me is if I’ve had a string of 12 hour nights as I gradually end up having less and less time to fit everything. I know it’s my own fault, I simply have a bad habit of not going to bed straight away after a shift and then run out of time to cook as well as sleep before going back to work and end up grabbing the easiest thing from the cupboard or garage to eat instead.