HSR conductor asleep at the wheel for 13 minutes

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
21

I know someone who sells medicine to hospitals and there are incentives even there to over prescribe or choose one drug over another because of financial incentives. There is no escape from this. I regularly have any and all drugs prescribed to me cross-checked by a friend in Europe who works in hospital and has access to the pharmaceuticals database. What’s on offer here is often obsolete and / or prescribed in wildly different doses from the EU.[/quote]

Perhaps I should put it another way. I have never been prescribed pills for a condition I never had at a hospital.

22

Maybe they should be under central control like the MRT. Run by computers. The driver is only there for emergencies. BART runs the same way, on auto control.

Drivers dont really “drive”, they only observe and report.

23

I know someone who sells medicine to hospitals and there are incentives even there to over prescribe or choose one drug over another. There is no escape from this. I regularly have any and all drugs prescribed to me cross-checked by a friend in Europe who works in hospital and has access to the pharmaceuticals database. What’s on offer here is often obsolete and / or prescribed in wildly different doses from the EU.[/quote]

Internet … I always cross reference multiple web sites on drugs they prescribe, and users’ ‘review’ of the drug.
Sometimes the code on the pill, tablet or capsule is enough to identify it. Hospitals do print the name (generic) on the label, makes it easy … if I don’t like it I ask to change the medicine.

24

[quote=“mingshah”]The point of this systems is that you have to press and release, usually in about 30 to 60 second intervalls, if you press it all the time it reacts too (hence the “dead man switch” name in German because if the guy is dead and lays/presses on it all the time than it reacts too…).

Seems the system worked but not sure why it can be overrided here and first somebody has to go and check the dirver, than they switch to auto.
Usually it just leads to a warning sound, if you dont react it goes on a full scale emergency stop.
Maybe they changed that here as they don’t have other trains here and they don’t cross lines, have slower trains on track, etc., still a bit strange.[/quote]

Just for everyone’s peace of mind, last night they had a great piece on the “dead man switches systems” at the MRT and TRA. Worked fine last time a TRA conductor had a heart attack.

25

No but you’re like one in my pants and you’re driving me nuts.

26

Driver fired.

From the Taipei Times

Inspections added after HSR driver falls asleep

YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE: A bullet train driver who fell asleep at the wheel for 13 minutes while operating a Zuoying-Taipei train late last month has been fired
By Shelley Shan
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, May 11, 2010, Page 2
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday it would increase the frequency of random inspections after a driver was found to have dozed off for about 13 minutes while operating a train.

THSRC spokesperson Ted Chia (賈先德) said the incident occurred on April 24 when the driver was operating a northbound train from Zuoying (左營) to Taipei.

When the driver, in his 30s, failed to respond to the Driver’s Safety Device, the control center had asked the train conductor to double check, Chia said.

The train conductor then found the driver reacting slowly to the instructions from the control center and recommended that the center replace the driver, Chia said, adding that the control center took over the operation of the train, which stopped safely at the Taichung High Speed Rail station at 5:13pm.

“When a train is about to enter the station, the speed limit is 30kph. However, the train was over the limit at 31kph, so we also had to activate the emergency brake system,” Chia said.

The train was delayed for four minutes because of the change of drivers.

Chia said the driver was later examined at Chung Shan Medical University Hospital in Taichung City and was found to have overtaken sleeping pills. The driver also admitted he had a sleeping disorder and had taken the pills from friends, without seeking medical help.

Chia said the driver, who started working for THSRC in 2008, obtained his driver’s license last year and has been operating trains for about a year.

The pilot was fired on Monday last week after it was determined that he violated regulations, Chia said. Aside from increasing the number of random inspections, the company has also added a list of medications that can induce lethargic reactions as one of the items to be inspected, he said.

Bureau of High Speed Rail director-general Chu Shu (朱旭) said he was not apprised of the incident until Thursday.

The bureau is an administrative agency under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications that oversees THSRC.

Chu said the company did not report the incident immediately after it happened. He has asked THSRC to hand in a detailed report on the incident, adding that it will launch an investigation and may interview the pilot.
This story has been viewed 483 times.

27

Ridiculous! I’ve fallen asleep for FAR longer than 13 minutes while driving on the No. 3 Freeway. Hasn’t affected me at all. I say its a witchhunt.

28

I think the two pilots flying a boeing 737 if i recall in the USA recently who fell asleep and overflew their destination also got laid off.

Falling asleep is a big no no when on the job obviously… just bout any job.

My then GF got pissed at me for falling alseep at the uhm ahh… nevermind.

29

Yes it’s in Neihu, you may have seen it:

Unfortunately, it warped in the heatwave last year, so the country can’t move forward anymore…

30

more news ala China Post, sounds like better selection needed for train drivers and also they need to have two drivers like the TRA does. Most TRA trains have a driver and an engineer AFAIK: (on the other hand TRA trains AFAIK dont have automated driving capability thus you need two people for safety like commercial planes)

Updated Tuesday, May 11, 2010 9:43 am TWN, The China Post news staff
HSR operator falls asleep for 13 minutes

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The 500-plus passengers of a Taipei-bound Taiwan High-Speed Rail train in the afternoon of April 24 had their brush with death.

The driver of the train was under the influence of sedatives and fell asleep for 13 minutes, leaving the train running at a speed of 298 kilometers per hour, local media reported yesterday.

The driver has already been fired by Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp. on May 3, as his action has severely violated the company’s rules of conduct for drivers, reports said.

The driver, unnamed and less than 30 years of age, was driving Train No. 1148 bound for Taipei, leaving Zuoying at 4:30 p.m. on April 24. The train stopped at Chiayi 20 minutes later.

At around 5 p.m., the train passed through Yunlin County at a speed of 298 kilometers. It was at this time that the driver apparently dozed off, as the trains’ sleep-detecting alarm system went off after failing to detect human activities for over a minute, reports said, citing initial investigations by Taiwan High-Speed Rail.

The driver woke up to the alarm, yet dozed off again. The alarm sounded a minute later. A female conductor of the train was then authorized to enter the cockpit, only to find the driver in a half-conscious state. The train’s auto-pilot system was then initiated, guiding the train to pull over in Taichung.

There, the conductor and a back-up driver pulled the driver from the cockpit. The train was delayed for four minutes due to the incident.

The driver entered Taiwan High-Speed Rail in February 2008. He completed training and received his operating license in March 2009, reports said.

The man had sleeping disorders and took sedatives without a doctor’s prescription, and took the pills the same day he drove the train and the night before, reports said.

Subscribe to The China Post