Sydney Trains' fatigue management processes were ineffective in identifying the fatigue impairment experienced by the driver.
The safety action has not yet been completed by Sydney Trains.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau recommends that Sydney Trains take safety action to ensure that adequate strategies exist to safeguard against fatigue impairment of train crew called in on the stand-by roster.
Sydney Trains is reviewing the procedures followed by train crew rostering officers with a view to ensuring that crew called in on late notice have an additional assessment conducted to assess their possible fatigue level. The review will include measures that may be taken if the possibility of elevated fatigue levels is revealed by the additional assessment.
The ATSB acknowledges that Sydney Trains has commenced a review of train crew rostering procedures. Since the safety action has not yet been completed by Sydney Trains, the ATSB makes the following recommendation so that actions to address the safety issue are effectively monitored and reported.