THE INFLUENCE OF SUSTAINED ATTENTION ON RAILWAY ACCIDENTS

Train accidents and near accidents occurring over a 3-year period were examined within an Australian public rail authority. Retrospective an alysis of 112 incidents according to Reason's (1992) Generic Error Mod elling System(Reason, 1992, Human Error. Cambridge University Press, C ambridge), revealed a propensity of skill based errors across the more common types of rail mishaps. In agreement with previous rail researc h, sustained attention was the most salient contributing human factor across all incident types, particularly inattentiveness to railway sig nals. The unfavourable nature of the working environment and the repet itive nature of the train driving task are discussed in light of reduc ing attentional deficits. In addition, a Railway Safety Checklist was developed to identify train drivers perception of safety. One hundred and ninety train drivers indicated that staff attitude in the form of low morale was a serious problem in the safe conduct of their job. The results of this study imply that useful strategies for improving driv er vigilance should be directed at improving the safety culture of the operating environment. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.