Fatigue Management
According to Dr. Mark Rosekind of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) the biggest risk in transportation safety is Human Behavior and fatigue can degrade every aspect of human behavior. Also, according to the NTSB fatigue impaired performance is not unlike alcohol-impaired performance...fatigued impaired individuals are terrible at recognizing their own impairment...and if I am impaired whether from alcohol or fatigue-and I get into an accident, does it really change the outcome?Sources report that fatigue played a major role in the Challenger, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Exxon Valdez disasters. On February 9, 2009 a Continental Connection Flight (Colgan Air) crashed in Buffalo, NY. According to the NTSB the probable cause of the crash was due to pilot fatigue caused by acute sleep loss. In March of 2011 two airliners landed just after midnight at Reagan National Airport without assistance because the lone controller fell asleep.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, millions of Americans are considered shift workers, including doctors and nurses, pilots, bridge-builders, police officers, customer service representatives and commercial drivers. According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2005 Sleep in America poll shift workers when compared to their day shift counterparts, are more likely to suffer from insomnia as well as excessive daytime sleepiness (61% vs. 47% and 30% vs. 18% respectively). Shift workers are also more likely to drive while fatigued and almost twice as likely to fall asleep at the wheel.
Human beings were never designed to work in a 24/7 environment which is exactly what millions of Americans are required to do. To survive one must sleep and undisturbed sleep is the only remedy for sleepiness. To ignore the needs of individuals who work irregular hours or shifts or those persons with sleep disorders is irresponsible considering the billions of dollars in lost productivity and the number of fatalities caused by cumulative sleep loss and sleep disorders.
The answer is to create a Fatigue Management Program that will address the needs of those suffering from sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea and shift work disorders or other sleep disorders. Together we can create policies and procedures that reduce incidents and accidents in an operational environment.