Curbing train control personnel unsafe acts stemming from unintended errors by focussing on cognitive processes and functions

Train control activities are critical to the safety of railway operations and nowhere is this most clearly demonstrated than during occurrences. Unreliable train control systems and sub-optimal or abnormal working conditions... [ view full abstract ]

Train control activities are critical to the safety of railway operations and nowhere is this most clearly demonstrated than during occurrences. Unreliable train control systems and sub-optimal or abnormal working conditions often give rise to the root causes responsible for personnel performing unsafe acts. At the source of these unsafe acts, however, are unintentional behaviours caused by train control personnel errors.

Using the human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS), this paper will delineate the commonly occurring train control officer errors leading to selected occurrences in the South Africa railway industry. Further to this, the suggested interventions for these unsafe acts, as listed in selected investigation reports, will be highlighted, with the aim of determining the extent to which these interventions are effective in curbing the unsafe acts borne from personnel errors. To aid in this process, and drawing on the information processing theory, the identified train control personnel errors (namely decision errors, perceptual errors, and skill-based errors), will then be used to shed light on the cognitive processes and functions that are compromised when these different kinds of errors manifest. In this regard, since cognitive processes and functions enable & support information acquisition, interpretation, decision making and motor output, the paper will demonstrate how they can also be linked to the unsafe acts caused by errors. Although parallels between personnel errors and the associated cognitive processes and functions are hardly drawn in practice, and the impact of train control activities on cognitive performance is not well understood or considered within the railway industry, this paper will make suggestions for human factor centred interventions that focus on optimising cognitive performance in order to reduce errors associated with unsafe acts and railway occurrences.