Real-time Fatigue Risk Assessment

Fatiguefit4Duty

Name: How do you know your employees are fit to start work?
Uploaded: 2026-10-29
Duration: 1 min 45 s
Description: Structured assessment at the point of duty, combining the sleep a person actually got in the last 24 and 48 hours with how alert they feel now.

Structured assessment at the point of duty, combining the sleep a person actually got in the last 24 and 48 hours with how alert they feel now.

Express interest Learn more

Risk & Safety solution

The problem

A compliant roster can still put a fatigued crew to work

The operational predictor of fatigue impairment is prior sleep and wake history, not hours on duty. Hours-of-service rules cannot see the night someone spent with a sick child or the sleep disorder nobody has diagnosed.

Fatiguefit4Duty asks, at the start of duty, the questions that do predict impairment, and puts the answer in front of the person who has to make the call.

**How do you know your employees are fit to start work?** Watch the video · 1:45

The size of the problem

National figures for the United States, from published research. They are modeled, not measured in your workforce.

33.2%get less than 7 hours' sleep2023
13%of workplace injuries are linked to sleep problems2014
US$1,970lost productivity per affected employee each year

Sources

Pankowska MM, Lu H, Wheaton AG, Liu Y, Lee B, Greenlund KJ, Carlson SA. Prevalence and Geographic Patterns of Self-Reported Short Sleep Duration Among US Adults, 2020. Preventing Chronic Disease (CDC), 2023;20:220400.
Uehli K, Mehta AJ, Miedinger D, et al. Sleep Problems and Work Injuries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2014;18(1):61-73.
Rosekind MR, et al. The Cost of Poor Sleep: Workplace Productivity Loss and Associated Costs. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2010;52(1):91-98. N=4,188 US employees; Work Limitations Questionnaire. Weighted incremental cost per affected employee, net of the good-sleeper baseline, in 2007 USD adjusted to July 2026 by CPI-U (207.342 to 333.918).

Stories

When no one checked who was fit for duty

Published cases from the United States where people started or kept working without enough sleep, and fatigue was never measured or treated as a hazard.

Mar 2005 · Texas, United States
Refinery explosion: operators on 29+ straight 12-hour shifts
- Safety
- Legal
- Financial
Explosions during restart of the isomerization unit at an oil refinery in Texas killed 15 workers and injured 180. The US Chemical Safety Board found the operators were likely fatigued from working 12-hour shifts for 29 or more consecutive days, and that the oil company had no fatigue prevention policy. It treated fatigue as a contributing factor within wider organizational failures.
Case US-oilgas-01Report an issue
Oct 2003 · New York, United States
Ferry pilot who 'reported to work exhausted' jailed; city loses bid to cap liability after 11 deaths
- Safety
- Legal
- Financial
A city-run passenger ferry in New York hit a concrete maintenance pier at full speed after its assistant captain, who had slept poorly and taken prescription painkillers, lost awareness at the controls; 11 people died and about 70 were injured. The pilot admitted he had been too exhausted to work that day and was jailed, as was the ferry director who failed to enforce a two-pilot rule. Federal courts refused to let the city limit its liability, finding that a second pilot or a reasonable practice for pilot incapacitation would have prevented the disaster, and the city's settlements exceeded $90 million.
Case US-maritime-12Report an issue
Jun 2004 · Texas, United States
Auto-transporter driver with acute fatigue ploughs into stopped traffic; five killed and carrier faulted for weak oversight
- Safety
An auto-transporter truck failed to slow for traffic queued behind an earlier crash on an interstate in Texas and set off a five-vehicle chain-reaction collision and fire. The National Transportation Safety Board found the driver failed to identify and react to the stopped traffic in time due to acute fatigue. Satellite tracking showed he had driven 954 miles in about 18 hours with only one 3-hour break, while his logbook showed a sleeper-berth rest, and the carrier was found to have failed to oversee the driver's fitness for duty and hours-of-service compliance.
Case US-transport-56Report an issue
Nov 2013 · Georgia, United States
Quarry haul truck operator found asleep on shift keeps driving; truck rolls into pond and he drowns
- Safety
A haul truck operator at a quarry operator's granite quarry was found asleep in a chair during his evening shift, was allowed to continue working, and later drove off the haul road, through a berm and into a settling pond, where he drowned. MSHA found the root cause was management's failure to ensure that persons could safely operate mobile equipment. The operator then set rules for handling employees suspected of being impaired on the job.
Case US-mining-03Report an issue
Jun 2021 · Arizona, United States
Milk tanker driver with under 6 hours' sleep opportunity plows into stopped traffic at night; four killed
- Safety
A milk tank truck operated by a milk hauling company struck a queue of stopped cars on a state highway at about 10:07 p.m. without slowing, killing four people and injuring 11. The NTSB found the driver likely failed to respond because of fatigue. The carrier ran under a federal agricultural hours-of-service exemption allowing unlimited driving within 150 air miles, had no fatigue management program and did not enforce its own on-duty hours limits.
Case US-transport-45Report an issue
Jul 2006 · Wisconsin, United States
Nurse who slept at the hospital between back-to-back shifts gives wrong drug and patient dies; license suspended and hours capped
- Safety
- Legal
- Financial
A labor and delivery nurse at a hospital worked two consecutive 8-hour shifts ending at midnight, slept at the hospital, and began another 8-hour shift at 7:00 am. That day she infused an epidural medication intravenously instead of penicillin to a teenage patient, without scanning the barcodes or reading the label, and the patient could not be resuscitated. The state Board of Nursing suspended her license for nine months and, for two years afterwards, limited her to 12 hours in any 24 and 60 hours in any 7 days.
Case US-healthcare-05Report an issue
Mar 2014 · Illinois, United States
City transit train operator falls asleep and rides up airport station escalator; 34 hurt, $11.2 million damage
- Safety
A city transit agency train failed to stop at an airport station at about 2:49 am, struck the bumping post and climbed an escalator. The NTSB found the operator fell asleep as a result of fatigue from shiftwork, circadian factors and acute sleep loss, and that the transit agency failed to manage her work schedule to mitigate fatigue risk; it had not limited weekly overtime and allowed returns to work after 8 or fewer hours off. Thirty-three passengers and the operator were taken to hospital.
Case US-rail-18Report an issue
Jun 2018 · Texas, United States
Helmsman at the wheel nearly 3 hours at night without relief, possibly short of required rest; bulk carrier hits tank barge, $21.3 million damage
- Safety
A bulk carrier collided with the tank barge of an articulated tug and barge in a ship channel in Texas at 2:50 a.m. The National Transportation Safety Board found the mate failed to monitor the helmsman, and that a lack of company and shipboard oversight of work and rest guidelines left the helmsman fatigued. The helmsman had been at the wheel for almost 3 hours at night without relief, and his deposition indicated daytime deck work that was not in the log. Damage was estimated at $21,338,000.
Case US-maritime-20Report an issue
Jun 2004 · Massachusetts, United States
Nuclear plant control room supervisor asleep on duty; $60,000 regulator penalty
- Legal
- Financial
A senior reactor operator supervising the control room of a nuclear plant fell asleep in a chair for about four minutes while on duty. A reactor operator who saw this did not wake the supervisor or report it, and the shift manager did not relieve the supervisor or send him for fitness-for-duty testing. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission treated the sleeping, the failure to report and the missing fitness-for-duty check as violations and fined the operator.
Case US-utilities-02Report an issue
Mar 2021 · Louisiana, United States
Towboat captain takes the helm minutes after waking; tow hits lock gate
- Safety
- Financial
A towing vessel's lead barge struck a closed gate at a waterway lock before dawn, causing an estimated $2.5 million in damage. The NTSB found the captain took the helm about five minutes before entering the lock, immediately after waking from about 4.5 hours of sleep in the circadian low, and was likely impaired by sleep inertia.
Case US-maritime-01Report an issue

See all fatigue news

How it works

A fitness-for-duty check at the start of the shift

Each person records the sleep they actually got in the last 24 and 48 hours and how alert they feel now. That covers two levels of defense at once: whether the sleep was obtained, and whether fatigue is showing at work. Elevated risk goes to the leader with the controls you have set for the role and task, before the work starts.

The five levels of defense

Step 01
Prompt
A supervisor prompts the assessment at the start of duty. Around thirty seconds, on a phone, and it works offline.
Step 02
Sleep and alertness
Prior sleep in the last 24 and 48 hours, time awake, and current sleepiness on the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale.
Step 03
Risk indication
Likelihood from prior sleep and wake history, combined with a consequence rating assigned by role, in an ISO 31000 calculation.
Step 04
Shown to the leader
The result goes to the team leader or safety manager, with the role- and task-based controls you have configured. The decision stays with you.

Most workplaces check whether someone is fit for duty without asking how they slept. A roster can’t see a night with a sick child. Thirty seconds at the start of a shift asks, and puts the answer in front of whoever makes the call.

Daniel PlattCo-founder and CEO

Rollout

How we roll it out

Scope
Agree the roles in scope and a consequence rating for each.
Configure
Set the controls for each band and who sees each result.
Train and launch
Supervisors learn to prompt the assessment and act on the result.
Review
Aggregate reporting by cohort, location and craft, and tune the controls.

What the client sees

Who sees what

Unlike Sleepfit, this result is not private to the worker: it exists to inform a control decision at the start of duty. Band thresholds and their derivation are published to you.

Priced on prevalence, not headcount. How pricing works.

The worker
Answers about their own sleep
- The thirty-second assessment, on a phone
Team leader or safety manager
The risk indication, by design
- Each person’s risk indication at the start of duty
- The role- and task-based controls you configured
The employer
Patterns across the operation
- Aggregate reporting by cohort, location and craft
- Band thresholds and how they were derived

Evidence

What we can show

The likelihood limb rests on prior sleep and wake history, the best-evidenced individual fitness-for-duty input available.

The approach follows the published fatigue risk management literature (Dawson & McCulloch, 2005; Dawson & Sprajcer, 2020). The scoring, bands and thresholds are our own, and no validation study is claimed for them.

What it does not establish

It produces a risk indication at role and task level. It does not make a fitness-for-duty determination, does not diagnose, and does not clear or stand down an employee. That decision stays with you, under your own procedure. It is a defensible method, not a validated instrument, and we do not describe it as one.

FAQs

Questions we’re often asked

Does it decide whether someone can work?

No. It gives a risk indication at role and task level, shown to the team leader or safety manager with the controls you have configured. It does not clear or stand down an employee: that decision stays with you, under your own procedure.

How long does it take, and does it need a signal?

Around thirty seconds on a phone at the start of duty, and it works offline.

What does it ask?

The sleep a person got in the last 24 and 48 hours, how long they have been awake, and how sleepy they feel now on the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, combined with a consequence rating set for each role.

The science

Is it a validated instrument?

No, and we don’t describe it as one. It follows the published fatigue risk management literature, but the scoring, bands and thresholds are our own and no validation study is claimed for them. The thresholds and how they were derived are published to you.

The science

Who sees an individual’s result?

The team leader or safety manager, by design: the result exists to inform a control decision at the start of duty, so it is not private to the worker. You also get aggregate reporting by cohort, location and craft.

Trust and security Privacy policy

Can someone delete their account?

Yes. Anyone can ask for their account and its personal data to be deleted; the steps are on its delete-account page. Deletion can’t be undone.

Delete an account

Pathways

Where to go next