Contributing factors to fatigue among high-speed train drivers: A questionnaire study in China

Abstract: Based on global statistics from 1993 to 2017, most railway accidents were caused by human errors, and drivers’ unsafe operation was one of the most common types of human errors ( Liu et al., 2019). One of the main contributing factors to drivers’ unsafe operations is driver fatigue. Therefore, it's essential to evaluate the level of fatigue among High-speed train (HST) drivers and identify the main influencing factors of fatigue. We designed a questionnaire that used the subjective score of SSS to assess the fatigue of HST drivers . A follow-up questionnaire survey was conducted with 243 HST drivers, and then exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical regression was conducted to determine the significant influencing factors of fatigue and form a prediction model. The results showed that HST drivers' personal characteristics (health status, personal trait score, number of chronic diseases), sleep, and working task (communicate task, lookout task) had significant effect on fatigue. The outcome of this research provided the main influencing factors of HST drivers’ fatigue and proposed an effective prediction model to promote structural understanding of HST drivers’ fatigue.

Keywords: high, speed train drivers, fatigue, Railway safety

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1003822

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