I don't know if this is a red herring.
I'd say it's fairly loose wording, perhaps it should say 'were up to date at the time of the incident.'
As an aside, obviously there is some focus on GTR and their rostering, but there is an element of personal responsibility and almost anyone who works shifts will know that working essentially 27-28 days in a month is a very bad move. That is a lot of RDW to do
There has to be some self-awareness when volunteering for extra work, someone needs to be able to recognise when they are getting fatigued. They also need to work in a culture where they can acknowledge that they are fatigued and not face repercussions for it (N.B. I am not saying that GTR doesn't have such a culture).
But it seems that, in this case, the driver had done the RDW without issue, the incident occurred on one of his standard rostered days. It's a brave man who takes the extra money for RDW then admits fatigue for their normal shift. Taking the overtime money then being too tired for your normal shift looks bad no matter how supportive an employer you have, so you can see why someone would try and power through. I've done it when I was working shifts, I felt fine doing the overtime then hit a wall on the last couple of days of the following normal week. Sorting the Christmas mail isn't safety critical and so industrial quantities of Red Bull got me through it.
But, for me, this is where a duty of care kicks in. The RAIB report says that the ORR guidance specifically cautions that some staff will want to work every hour that God sends and to be aware of the consequences. Sometimes an employer really does have to say no before you get into a situation where the cumulative effect of RDW means you're too fatigued to do your normal shift.
It sounds like the TOC where
@LowLevel works seem to have processes in place to recognise this. I suppose this is why RAIB made a point of stating that, in their opinion, GTR's processes fell below industry best practice. If
nobody in the industry was taking these things into account then RAIB would have worded their recommendation as applying to all TOCs and FOCs.
Hopefully something will happen about BTP and their obsession with arresting railway staff.
This is not new. the driver of the local involved in the Wembley Central mishap 11.10.84 was - understandably - wandering around in a dazed state afterwards. A policeman approached him and, after he said certain words, arrested him.
This certainly changed attitudes of open-ness on the L.M..
It's a tough one. If you have a microsleep and crash your car then there's a pretty good chance that the police will arrest you for careless or dangerous driving. There only has to be a suspicion for them to arrest you. It doesn't mean they will charge you or that the CPS will prosecute you. It's hard to argue that train drivers shouldn't be held to the same standard.
But on the other hand, unless a drug or alcohol test comes back positive, it does seem like an overreaction to stick someone in handcuffs and march them off for an interview.
I think the lesson for everyone is that the police are not your friends and they are not there to help you.
