• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Federal Safety Board Issues Sleep Apnea Alert

Posted on: Thursday, 22 October 2009, 07:30 CDT

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recently alerted a number of federal agencies to the dangers of sleep apnea—a sleep disorder that they say is being increasingly recognized as a factor in a variety of transportation mishaps.

The board has already sent official letters to the US Coast Guard and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recommending that drivers and ship pilots be questioned by medical examiners about the disorder and has suggested that they begin to develop programs aimed at preemptively locating at-risk operators.

The NTSB has also expanded their list of operators who they advise should be screened for sleep apnea to include commercial truck and bus drivers as well as commercial ship pilots.  These recommendations come in the wake of similar ones made earlier this year for airline pilots and train operators.

Sleep apnea is a disorder in which the affected person experiences pauses in breathing lasting at least 10 seconds.  Though not usually dangerous in itself, the pauses typically disturb the patient’s sleep rhythm and can lead to chronic fatigue.

In 2002, a major study estimated that some 7 percent of adult Americans suffer from at least a moderate form of the disorder, though many people are themselves unaware that they even have it.

According to NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman, sleep apnea has also been detected as a factor in accidents in every branch of the transportation industry.

A few of the mishaps cited in the letters included two airline pilots who dozed off on a routine flight in Hawaii and flew past their destination, a cruise ship carrying 2,200 people that ran aground on a marked rock in Alaska, and a bus carrying passengers on a ski trip that flew headlong off a mountain pass in Utah killing nine people and injuring dozens more.  In all cases the vehicle operators suffered from sleep apnea.

Sasha Johnson, spokeswoman for the Transportation Department, says that the agency is currently reviewing a variety of methods for developing a more robust screening procedure for certifying commercial vehicle operators.

And other agencies are following suit as well.

According to spokeswoman Lisa Novak, the Coast Guard is also reviewing the recommendations and looking into revising its safety protocol.  The FAA stated that it had already begun working on new regulations to address the problem of pilot fatigue even before receiving the letter from the NTSB and it will incorporate the board’s suggestions into their deliberations.

Former NTSB chairman Mark Rosneker explained recently that while chronic fatigue due to sleep apnea has long been a problem on the board’s radar, the incident with the two pilots in Hawaii served as a jolting call to action for the organization’s board members.

“Obviously when two pilots fall asleep in the cockpit and they miss their stop, that triggers a lot of interest at NTSB,” he stated.

---

On the Net:

• National Transportation Safety Board

Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category