12-hour Shifts - Are they to blame?

Many of you have probably read about the tragic death of Kristy Gough of San Leandro, CA and Matt Peterson of San Francisco, CA. On March 9, 2008, these two competitive cyclists were on a Saturday morning ride on a country road in Santa Clara County, CA. The two cyclists (along with another cyclist who survived) were hit, head on, by James Council, a Santa Clara County Deputy Sheriff, who had crossed over the double yellow line with his patrol car. The deputy mentioned to witnesses at the scene that he had fallen asleep at the wheel and didn’t know how the accident happened. You can read more about the accident here.

What does this have to do with shift work? Well, the deputy, like most law enforcement personnel on the road, is a shiftworker. He works 12-hour shifts, and in addition to working the day of the accident, he had worked the previous day. The accident occurred about 4.5 hours into the Deputy Council’s shift. Now, his lawyer is pointing to the work schedule as a possible excuse for his tragic mistake.

Does this make sense? Probably not – though we don’t know all of the details about Council’s schedule. Many shiftworkers working traditional 12-hour shift schedules will tell you that the long shifts are difficult. They also tell you that if you prepare for them they are manageable. The safety and performance data available suggests that these shift worker’s opinions are sound. We recently had an article published in “Occupational Health and Safety” magazine that discusses shift length and its impact on sleep.

While 12-hour shifts are long, they do allow for enough time for sleep. Even in the case of Deputy Council, who at the time of his accident was working the two day-shifts spanning the time change from Standard time to Daylight Saving Time, had 10.5 hours available to fit in his needed sleep period. Getting enough sleep when working 12-hour shifts requires the shiftworker to make sleep a priority, but getting the sleep is feasible.

If Deputy Council did fall asleep, he probably was sleep deprived. He was driving on a twisty road that requires one to pay close attention to navigate it safely. Falling asleep when you are bored and feel safe is one matter. Falling asleep 4.5 into your shift on a twisty road suggests significant sleep deprivation. As pointed out in the “Occupational Safety and Health” article, sleep deprivation like that is not caused by a typical 12-hour shift schedule.