Critical incidents and fatigue among locomotive engineers

This paper reviews studies of critical incidents and fatigue among locomotive engineers (train drivers). Most studies have defined critical incidents as infractions of operating regulations, particularly those relating to signals at danger or caution. Others have defined critical incidents as locomotive engineers' reports of unsafe events. Both types of study have related incident rate to factors like signal design and work organization. Studies of fatigue have shown how critical incidents are more likely to occur at certain times of day and at certain times within a duty period. All of the reviewed studies have regarded critical incidents and fatigue as special events. This paper argues that future research in the field needs to focus on the total task of the locomotive engineer as normally performed rather than on particular behavioural events like critical incidents.