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                      NTSB PRESS RELEASE

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National Transportation Safety Board

Washington, DC 20594

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 5, 2010

SB-10-06

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FATIGUE ENDANGERS TRANSPORTATION WORKERS AND PASSENGERS

ACROSS ALL MODES, NTSB CHAIRMAN WARNS

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National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah A.P.

Hersman today encouraged the sleep research and healthcare

community to continue their efforts to educate

transportation policy makers of the dangers of fatigue in

all modes of transportation.

Speaking before the annual conference of the National Sleep

Foundation in Washington, D.C., Chairman Hersman remarked

that fatigue has been a concern for the Board since the

creation of the agency in 1967 and it has been an issue on

the Board's Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety

Improvements since the list was established in 1990.

"The work of the National Sleep Foundation and other

organizations and individuals is critical to improving

transportation safety policy," said Chairman Hersman. "The

NTSB is interested and willing to partner with you in

developing a greater awareness of fatigue."

Hersman highlighted a number of accident investigations

across all transportation modes that included fatigue as the

probable cause or a contributing factor to accidents. As a

result, the Board has made safety recommendations that range

from deploying fatigue detection systems to reduce the

occurrence of accidents to installing electronic on-board

recorders that collect and maintain hours of service data on

vehicle operators.

"We can't always prove fatigue as a cause of an accident,

but the frequency with which we now routinely document the

presence of fatigue-related factors in transportation

operations is alarming," Hersman stated.

Hersman remarked that while there are still no definitive

tools to conclusively identify the degree to which a person

is fatigued, the major challenge is to ensure that all those

in transportation report to work rested and fit for duty -

for their own safety and for the safety of those they are

transporting.

The complete text of Chairman Hersman's speech may be

obtained on the Board's website at:

http://www.ntsb.gov/speeches/hersman/daph100305.html.

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