The News-Times, Danbury, CT, 12/27:
Investigation: federal railroad officials ignore regulations on fatigue
Train engineer William Rockefeller, known as "Billy" to the regulars on Metro-North's Hudson Line, "came stumbling" into a scene of chaos in Car No. 1 after last year's disastrous derailment in the Bronx, N.Y.
The National Transportation Safety Board would later conclude that Rockefeller had fallen asleep, allowing the train to approach a curve at more than 50 mph over the safe speed, due to severe undiagnosed sleep apnea aggravated by a recent schedule change.
SNIP
In this case, the human element is a basic one -- the need for sleep. But regulations governing fatigue and sleep disorders are nonexistent, despite NTSB recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration for more than a decade and a 5-year-old federal law directing the FRA to write regulations.
Read more here.
