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Incident and Accident Analysis

Was It Fatigue?

Structured post-incident analysis of whether fatigue contributed to an event, and through which pathway.

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A Was It Fatigue? finding on a phone: a Fatigue Accident Likelihood Score of 3.2, between Possible and Likely, with how to record it.
Risk & Safety solution

The problem

Serious incidents must be investigated. Few investigations ask properly about fatigue.

Fatigue is easy to assert and hard to establish after the fact. Investigations tend either to miss it or to blame it without testing the alternatives.

Was It Fatigue? gives your investigators a consistent, repeatable way to ask, and a record that shows the alternatives were tested.

See how Was It Fatigue? works Watch the video · 0:33
Presented by Professor Drew Dawson

The size of the problem

National figures for Australia, from published research. They are modelled, not measured in your workforce.

  • 13%of workplace injuries are linked to sleep problems2014
  • 39.8%have inadequate sleep2017
  • A$3,216lost productivity per affected employee each year
Sources
  1. Uehli K, et al. Sleep Problems and Work Injuries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2014.
  2. Deloitte Access Economics. "Asleep on the Job: Costs of Inadequate Sleep in Australia." Prepared for the Sleep Health Foundation, 2017 (2016-17 data).
  3. Deloitte Access Economics, "Asleep on the Job: Costs of Inadequate Sleep in Australia", prepared for the Sleep Health Foundation, 2017 (2016-17 data), inflated to 2026 AUD.

Stories

The biggest incidents fatigue played a part in

Findings from investigators, coroners and courts in Australia that fatigue contributed, the most harmful first.

  • June 2023 · New South Wales, Australia

    Charter bus crash that killed 10: operator and directors fined $674,000 incl. fatigue management failures

    • Safety
    • Legal
    • Financial

    After a charter bus crash in regional New South Wales killed 10 people and seriously injured 25, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator prosecuted the bus company and its two directors. They pleaded guilty to Heavy Vehicle National Law safety duty breaches covering inadequate driver recruitment, failure to manage overspeed in a timely way, and fatigue management failings. The court fined the company $650,000 and each director $12,000, with proceedings against two managers still pending.

    Case AU-transport-23Report an issue

See all fatigue news

How it works

A structured answer to “was it fatigue?”

After an incident or near miss, investigators work through a structured method: was fatigue present, and was the error the kind fatigue produces once other explanations are tested? It sits at the last level of defence, after something has gone wrong, and feeds each finding back into the levels before it: rosters, sleep and in-shift controls.

  1. Step 01

    Event

    An investigator opens an assessment against a specific incident.

    The Was It Fatigue? investigations list on a phone, each with its Fatigue Accident Likelihood, and a button to begin a new investigation.

  2. Step 02

    Was fatigue present?

    The Fatigue Likelihood Score, from four questions: falling asleep immediately prior, behavioural symptoms in the preceding fifteen minutes, prior sleep and wake history, and sleep opportunity in the roster.

    A new Was It Fatigue? investigation on a phone: the date of the incident, then whether there is clear evidence the person fell asleep immediately before it.

  3. Step 03

    Was it a fatigue-type error?

    The Fatigue Error Likelihood Score tests alternative explanations at every level before attributing the error to fatigue.

    Expert guidance in Was It Fatigue?: the behaviours that would support questionable evidence of fatigue in the 15 minutes before the incident, with a button to confirm the response.

  4. Step 04

    Combined finding

    A Fatigue Attributable Likelihood Score on a 1–5 band with the pathway named, which feeds back into roster, sleep and in-shift controls.

    A Was It Fatigue? finding: a Fatigue Accident Likelihood Score of 5.0, Almost Certain, with what the score means and how to record it.

After an incident, fatigue is either missed or blamed without testing the alternatives. Neither helps the people involved, and neither tells you which control failed. I wanted investigators to have a consistent way to ask the question properly, and a record that shows they did.

Daniel PlattCo-founder and CEO

Rollout

How we roll it out

  1. Scope

    Agree which events call for an assessment, and who investigates.

  2. Set up

    Investigator access, fitted to your existing incident process.

  3. Train

    Investigators learn the method and work a first case together with us.

  4. Review

    Findings feed back into roster, sleep and in-shift controls.

What the client sees

Who sees what

Each record names the fatigue pathway and documents the alternatives tested. It is priced on investigation volume, not headcount: the only event-priced product in the suite.

Priced on prevalence, not headcount. How pricing works.

  • Your investigators

    The full record

    • Every answer and score
    • The alternative explanations tested
    • The fatigue pathway named

  • The employer

    One record per event

    • A structured, repeatable investigation record
    • Findings to feed back into roster, sleep and in-shift controls

Evidence

What we can show

Its construction requires both the presence of fatigue and a fatigue-signature error, and tests alternative explanations throughout. That is what stops it inferring causation from fatigue alone.

It is the only product in the suite that looks across all levels, including roster adequacy, retrospectively after an event.

What it does not establish

It is retrospective. It does not predict an event, does not size a population, and one investigation does not establish a pattern. It is not a validated instrument and no validation claim is made for it. Records produced are discoverable.

In practice

Rail · North America

A Class I railroad uses Was It Fatigue? to determine whether fatigue contributed to an incident or near miss.

Its investigators ask the same structured questions after every event, so each record assesses how likely it is that fatigue was present and that the error was the kind fatigue produces, and shows which other explanations were tested.

FAQs

Questions we’re often asked

Who uses it?

Your investigators, who open an assessment against a specific incident or near miss.

How does it avoid blaming fatigue by default?

It requires both the presence of fatigue and an error of the kind fatigue produces, and tests alternative explanations at every level before attributing an error to fatigue.

The science

What does the finding look like?

A Fatigue Attributable Likelihood Score on a 1–5 band with the fatigue pathway named, which feeds back into roster, sleep and in-shift controls.

Is it a validated instrument?

No, and no validation claim is made for it. It is a structured, repeatable method. It is retrospective: it does not predict an event, and one investigation does not establish a pattern. Records produced are discoverable.

The science

How is it priced?

On investigation volume, not headcount: it is the only event-priced product in the suite.

How pricing works

How is investigation data protected?

The platform is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022.

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Pathways

Where to go next

Was It Fatigue? and regulation across 33 industries in Australia

2 / 33

Supports a named obligation

31 / 33

Supports your general duty of care

See how Was It Fatigue? fits the regulation in your industry, and what else we would start with there.

All 33 industries

Other solutions interconnected with Was It Fatigue?

Levels 2 and 3

Fatiguefit4Duty

Catch elevated risk at the start of duty, before the next event.

Where to start

Fatiguefit

Turn investigation findings into a measured, organisation-wide picture.

Interested in Was It Fatigue? for your organisation?

Tell us a little about your organisation and which solutions you’re looking at, and our team will be in touch.

Express interest See your workforce snapshot
A Was It Fatigue? finding on a phone: a Fatigue Accident Likelihood Score of 3.2, between Possible and Likely, with how to record it.