The victim was traveling on a major, four-lane interstate en route to an out-of-state destination to pick up supplies when he failed to notice that traffic had stopped – he only obtained 3.5 hours of sleep prior to beginning work.
Employers should be aware of and avoid work schedules that may contribute to worker fatigue. In this case, the company contacted the victim only six hours prior to the departure time in order to complete the task in the time-frame requested by the employer.
Occupational injuries and fatalities are often the result of one or more contributing factors or key events in a larger sequence of events that ultimately result in the injury or fatality. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) investigators identified four unrecognized hazards as key contributing factors in this incident.
Read the article at EHS Today.
