Clear Roads: Environmental Factors Causing Fatigue in Snowplow Operators

Status:  Complete
Report Date:  03/01/2011

Summary:

This report presents the final results of a three-part data collection effort to investigate causes of fatigue in operators during winter emergencies. Naturalistic driving and actigraph data were collected from four winter maintenance operators, and questionnaires were collected from 1,043 winter maintenance operators and 453 winter maintenance managers. More than 368 hours of valid on-road data were collected, including 338 hours (24 days) of winter emergency operations and approximately 30 hours of non-winter emergency operations. Additionally, more than 6,600 hours of actigraph data were collected from the four winter maintenance operators. An analysis of the literature review, naturalistic and actigraph data, and questionnaires resulted in the following list of cost-effective, realistic recommendations for reducing/eliminating operator fatigue: winter maintenance operator fatigue training, encouraged use of breaks/naps, fatigue education for winter maintenance managers, increased winter maintenance vehicle maintenance, investigation of winter emergency shift start/end times and shift length, an offer of shift options, involvement of winter maintenance operators in the decision-making process, and an increase in management’s personal interactions with winter maintenance operators.

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