The Department of Transportation has had a study going for about ten years on operator fatague that covers all forms of tramsportation. Railroad operators, Pipeline operators, Airline pilots, Barge operators....

Right now these people can work up to 14, and in some cases, 16 hours a day. If it is an emergency they can work up to 18 hours a day. The new rules would limit this to 10 no matter what.

The transportation industries are fighting this, and have been, for at least the last 10 years since it would raise the amount of operators they would have to hire to cover all the shifts since all of these jobs are 24/7 positions.

If these two guys just dropped over from fatgue then no matter what happens to them on a personal level the DOT is likely to cite them as a reason to rule on the amount of hours an operator can work during one shift.

Currenty these jobs are usually 12 hour shifts and everyone, even the empolyees working them, likes them that way. But accidents happen, (about 80% of transportation accidents are due to outside forces interfering with a transportation system) and the fatgue level of an operator has a direct influence on how well they respond to an accident.

This incident could reach much further than just these two guys.