The research findings summarized above clearly bring out that

172 Pages·2013·3.82 MB·English

(xv) The main features of the TRAIN Project (Sub Project 3) of
Swedish National Rail Administation report are as under:
• Although the train drivers are satisfied with their jobs, the
working hours and the physical work environment (mainly noise level,
vibrations, inadequate maintenance and poor cab climate) were seen
as a problem.
• The working hours intruded upon driver's social lives and led to
problems of sleep and fatigue.
• Day time sleep following a night shift was associated with a
clearly inferior level of recovery and a considerable lack of sleep.
• The effect of circadian rhythm on wakefulness and rest must be
taken into consideration while planning driver's schedules.
• The schedules should be worked out so that these are as
regular as possible and not too long (9 hours maximum). The need for
an extra long rest period (minimum24 hours) after a night time shift is
also stressed upon.
• Irregular working hours was perceived as one of the most
serious problems at work.
• Train drivers suffer from severe fatigue and sleepiness when
working at night.
The research findings summarized above clearly bring out
that:
(a) The sleep during the day does not completely
compensate the loss of sleep at night.
(b) Due to continuous night working, the uncompensated
sleep keeps accumulating even though the Running
Staff is provided adequate rest during day hours. This
sleep debt can only be compensated by providing
adequate full nights in bed.
(c) This accumulation builds up stress and strain which
even though may not be clearly felt by the Running
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Staff at times, affects his reflexes, reaction time and
increases sleepiness while on duty. This may result
into safety violations in addition to having adverse
effects on the health of running staff as well as his
family and social life.
Appreciating the results/findings of these scientific studies,
many of the Railway systems abroad have already revised
the provisions for continuous night duties to a level of two to
four nights followed by a mandatory longer rest period at
home before further night duties. For example, DB in
Germany are following a system of maximum 4 continuous
nights (extendable to 5 on mutual agreement) and SNCF in
France are following a system of 2 continuous nights
maximum at present. Federal Rail Road Administration in
America have also provided for giving a home station rest of
24 hours when the employee performs a duty starting
between 8 pm and 4 am. Civil aviation authorities in India
have also brought down the limit to only one night working
(for passenger flights) and maximum 2 continuous night
working (for Cargo flights) with added provisions for further
reduction if the duties/part thereof falls in the window of
circadian low (WOCL).
Many of these concepts which emerged from the studies by
RDSO in early 1980s as well as by the international bodies
thereafter (as detailed above) have been an eye opener
even for the Committee Members who have had substantial
experience in Railway operations during their service
- 124 -
careers. However, in order to adjudge the efficacy of the
concepts as well as remedial measures suggested in the
studies, the Committee also took upon themselves the task
of analyzing some of the SPAD (Signal Passing at Danger)
cases which also include the cases of serious accidents
caused by the Running Staff on account of signal passing at
danger. For this purpose, the Committee undertook a study
of those SPAD cases which occurred during the period
falling within committee's tenure (i.e. between 01.04.2011
and 01.09.2012) and are available on IR's safety website.
There were total 147 SPAD cases during this period
(Annexure VI) and their analysis indicates that:
(a) In 15 cases, the time of accident is not available on the
website.
(b) 27 cases involve motor-men (who normally get full
night's rest daily) or these cases have occurred during
shunting operations which are carried out on a fixed
roster basis.
The balance 95 cases were segregated based on the
time of occurrence. The Committee found that:
(a) In 47 cases, the accidents occurred during the day time
(i.e. from 0600 to 2200 hours).
(b) In 48 cases, the accidents occurred during the night
time (i.e. from 2200 to 0600 hours). (In many of the
cases which occurred during the day time, the crew
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(xv) The main features of the TRAIN Project (Sub Project 3) of
Swedish National Rail Administation report are as under:
• Although the train drivers are satisfied with their jobs, the
working hours and the physical work environment (mainly noise level,
vibrations, inadequate maintenance and poor cab climate) were seen
as a problem.
• The working hours intruded upon driver's social lives and led to
problems of sleep and fatigue.
• Day time sleep following a night shift was associated with a
clearly inferior level of recovery and a considerable lack of sleep.
• The effect of circadian rhythm on wakefulness and rest must be
taken into consideration while planning driver's schedules.
• The schedules should be worked out so that these are as
regular as possible and not too long (9 hours maximum). The need for
an extra long rest period (minimum24 hours) after a night time shift is
also stressed upon.
• Irregular working hours was perceived as one of the most
serious problems at work.
• Train drivers suffer from severe fatigue and sleepiness when
working at night.
The research findings summarized above clearly bring out
that:
(a) The sleep during the day does not completely
compensate the loss of sleep at night.
(b) Due to continuous night working, the uncompensated
sleep keeps accumulating even though the Running
Staff is provided adequate rest during day hours. This
sleep debt can only be compensated by providing
adequate full nights in bed.
(c) This accumulation builds up stress and strain which
even though may not be clearly felt by the Running
- 123 -
Staff at times, affects his reflexes, reaction time and
increases sleepiness while on duty. This may result
into safety violations in addition to having adverse
effects on the health of running staff as well as his
family and social life.
Appreciating the results/findings of these scientific studies,
many of the Railway systems abroad have already revised
the provisions for continuous night duties to a level of two to
four nights followed by a mandatory longer rest period at
home before further night duties. For example, DB in
Germany are following a system of maximum 4 continuous
nights (extendable to 5 on mutual agreement) and SNCF in
France are following a system of 2 continuous nights
maximum at present. Federal Rail Road Administration in
America have also provided for giving a home station rest of
24 hours when the employee performs a duty starting
between 8 pm and 4 am. Civil aviation authorities in India
have also brought down the limit to only one night working
(for passenger flights) and maximum 2 continuous night
working (for Cargo flights) with added provisions for further
reduction if the duties/part thereof falls in the window of
circadian low (WOCL).
Many of these concepts which emerged from the studies by
RDSO in early 1980s as well as by the international bodies
thereafter (as detailed above) have been an eye opener
even for the Committee Members who have had substantial
experience in Railway operations during their service
- 124 -
careers. However, in order to adjudge the efficacy of the
concepts as well as remedial measures suggested in the
studies, the Committee also took upon themselves the task
of analyzing some of the SPAD (Signal Passing at Danger)
cases which also include the cases of serious accidents
caused by the Running Staff on account of signal passing at
danger. For this purpose, the Committee undertook a study
of those SPAD cases which occurred during the period
falling within committee's tenure (i.e. between 01.04.2011
and 01.09.2012) and are available on IR's safety website.
There were total 147 SPAD cases during this period
(Annexure VI) and their analysis indicates that:
(a) In 15 cases, the time of accident is not available on the
website.
(b) 27 cases involve motor-men (who normally get full
night's rest daily) or these cases have occurred during
shunting operations which are carried out on a fixed
roster basis.
The balance 95 cases were segregated based on the
time of occurrence. The Committee found that:
(a) In 47 cases, the accidents occurred during the day time
(i.e. from 0600 to 2200 hours).
(b) In 48 cases, the accidents occurred during the night
time (i.e. from 2200 to 0600 hours). (In many of the
cases which occurred during the day time, the crew
- 125 -
might have signed on /signed off between 2200 and
0600 hours and would have performed a part of his
duty during night hours. Though, such cases also may
be on account of effects of night duty yet these have
not been counted as the cases which occurred during
night)
(c) Out of 48 cases which occurred during the night time,
those which occurred between 0200 and 0600 hours
(i.e. during WOCL) are 25 cases.
Thus, the Committee observes that over 50 per cent
SPAD cases took place during night time and out of
these, over 50 per cent took place between 0200-0600
hours (i.e. during WOCL).
This broad analysis encouraged the Committee to further
study in detail the duty and rest scheduling pattern of 3
sample cases to identify precisely the effect of irregular night
work. The cases taken up for such an analysis are:
(i) Hampi Express (Train no. 16591) accident on 22-05-
2012 at Penukonda station, Bangalore division,
Southern Railway.
(ii) Goods train (E-Box) accident on 02-04-2012 at
Bilochpura, Agra Division, NC Railway.
(iii) Rajdhani Express (Train no. 12424) accident on 11-03-
2012 at Begusarai station, Sonepur division, NE
Railway.
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The details of these cases bring out that:
(a) Hampi Express (Train No. 16591):
(i) At 0310 hours on 22-05-2012, the Loco Pilot of
the train passed Down Home signal at danger
and hit a stabled Goods train at Penukonda
station. 25 persons were killed, 14 grievously
injured and 17 had simple injuries.
(ii) During the period from 21.04.2012 to 21.05.2012
(i.e. last one month before the accident), the
Loco Pilot of Hampi Express made 28 trips
(details of the working of the Loco Pilot are given
in Annexure VII). Out of these, as many as 23
trips involved night working and as many as 17
trips were made in the Window of Circadian Low
(WOCL).
(iii) During this period, the Loco Pilot had worked
once for 7 continuous nights (5 were in the
Window of Circadian Low), once for 5 continuous
nights (4 were in the Window of Circadian Low)
and once for 3 continuous nights (all were in the
Window of Circadian Low).
(iv) Immediately before the trip during which he met
with the accident, the Loco Pilot worked for 7
nights continuously (5 in Window of Circadian
Low) (Full periodical rest was, however, granted
to him before he undertook this trip).
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(v) During this period, only 3 periodical rests were
granted to the Loco Pilot as against 4.
(b) E-BOX Goods train:
(i) At 0504 hours on 02-05-2012, the Loco Pilot who
was working the train from TKD to AGC, passed
the signal at danger at Bilochpura station. No
casualities/i nju ries.
(ii) During the period from 01.04.2012 to 01.05.2012
i.e. last 30 days before the accident (details of
the working of the Loco Pilot are given in
Annexure VII), the Loco Pilot of the train made 29
trips (details were not available for 8 working
days). Out of these, as many as 16 trips involved
night working and as many as 13 were made in
the Window of Circadian Low (WOCL).
(iii) During this period, the Loco Pilot worked for 4
nights continuously once out of which 2 were in
WOOL.
(iv) After availing full headquarter rest of 16 hours 45
minutes, the Loco Pilot signed on at 13:45 hours
at Agra and arrived TKD at 17:10 hours as spare.
He again signed on at 20:10 hours and was
booked for duty after availing only 3 hours
outstation rest which is not adequate. Thus, his
total duty hours work out to 15 hours 19 minutes
(including three hours in WOCL) counting the
- 128 -
outstation rest period also as duty as he could
not have used it for the purpose of
sleeping/taking rest. This is very high.
(c) Raidhani Express (Train no. 12424)
(i) At 0505 hours on 11-03-2012, the Loco Pilot of
the train entered the sand hump at Begusarai
after disregarding the Starter signal. No
causalities/injuries.
(ii) During the period from 14.02.2012 to 11.03.2012
i.e. last 28 days preceding the accident (details of
the working of the Loco Pilot are given in
Annexure VII), the Loco Pilot made 26 trips. Out
of these, as many as 15 trips involved night
working.
(iii) During this period, the Loco Pilot worked for 3
continuous nights (including 2 in WOCL) on 2
occasions.
(iv) However, during the last 7 days preceding the
accident, the Loco Pilot worked in the night on 6
occasions out of which 4 were in the Window of
Circadian Low (WOCL). Thus, during the last 7
days, the Loco Pilot was given full night in bed
only once.
The analysis of these three cases amply brings out that
the Loco Pilots operating these trains had been working
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