This barge accident happened at 7:45am, after he had been up for 5 hours. Remember the commuter train in LA that was hit head-on by a freight last month? Freight crew fell asleep(approx. 7:30am). Also the likely explanation for the freight train collision in Clarendon, TX on Monday(approx. 9:00am). Earlier this year a passenger train ran through switches at Washington DC Union Station when the operator fell asleep entering it at approx. 7am, but was awakened before a worse accident could take place.
I can only speak for railroads, but truckers and apparently barge operators have similar problems. On the railroad the law requires that you be given 8 hours off for rest if you work less than 12 hours, or 10 hours off if you are on duty for more than 12. But the railroad is allowed to phone and give you your call for the next assignment 2, 3, or even 4 hours before that 8 or 10 hours is up. Further, no set schedule is required, so you could work 10 hours, be off 8, work 11:55 more, be off 8, work 6, be off 8, work 11, be off 8, etc., and thus go for months or even years without a set sleep pattern. Sure the industry says go home and get your rest, but its often not possible to have such varying off times and get normal sleep, plus there's the matter of driving home, running chores, seeing family, etc. So too often there are walking zombies operating heavy machinery. Ask any doctor about the effects of prolonged and chronic sleep deprivation. I'm convinced it takes years off these guys lives.
Try it for yourself for a week and see how you function: Come off vacation Monday morning, wait all day for the call, go to bed at 8pm because you know that you are first out on the extra board, but can't sleep, finally doze off about 11. Phone rings at 11:30, go to work at 2:30am. Off at noon, grab a bite and crawl into the hotel bed about 2pm, phone wakes you at 6:30pm, on duty 8:30pm, off at 7:30am Wed. Get some breakfast, run some errands(since it looks like you are several times out, and may not get back from the next trip until Friday night, but missed seeing the kids, already at school), Hit the hay about 11am, but the phone rings at 1:30pm. "Would you like to work the X job this afternoon?" No way, but your sleep has been interrupted. Roll over, but phone rings again at 3pm. They ran a lot of extras, so your turn has come up, be there at 6pm.
So you run all night, off at 5am, crawl into the hotel bed around 7am, wake about 3pm, mill about, wait some more(not running many trains right now) lay down at 11 but you can't sleep, phone rings at 1am for 3am on duty. Off at 1pm on Friday, crawl into bed at 2:30pm but up at 6 to take the family to dinner and watch the boy's football game. At the game you are paged to be on duty at 11pm.
Problems along the way, you hit the 12 hours max you can work, sit for 2 hours awaiting the recrew, take another 2 hours to van back to the terminal, off at 3pm, in bed at 4:30. Sleep like a baby, but the phone rings at 11pm, on duty at 1am Sunday. Quick run gets you off duty at 7am. Drive home, eat breakfast, and in bed at 9, but up at noon to go to the girl's recital(Since you've missed the last 5). Phone rings at 7pm be on duty at 10pm. So its now 8am Monday morning, you've been up 20 hours and got less than 30 hours sleep in the entire week(an average of 4.5 hours per day, since it is technically illegal on most railroads to even catnap while on duty, irregardless of whether you are on the train or sitting around the yard office. And do you think that you'd sleep in the shuttle vans? Drivers are often ex-cons or drug addicts paid by the run rather than minimum wage, no hours or service limit, thus may have been on duty for 15 or more hours and earned less than $50 in that time. They are often sleepier than the crews.) Only 6 months to go until your next vacation(since 3 out of your last 4 markoff requests have been denied), its only been one week and you are dog tired. Can see the dominoes lining up for a fall?
There are serious safety issues regarding sleep deprivation throughout the transportation industry that year in and year out are never addressed. As corrupt and scummy as they are, there are some legitimate reasons why unions are so prevalent in these industries. This is one of the few areas where more regulation IS needed.
The Navy has done it ever since but the person has to be conditioned to the task. If you are accoustomed to this type work it becomes routine. BTW I was also an OTR truck driver at one time. True the driver may run up to 20 hours including stops to get to a destination or stopping point for sleep. He may as well likely stay there at least 24 hours waiting on another load to be scheduled. I was stuck in some places for nearly a week. Califorina was a truckers nightmare as far as that goes. If you didn't have a reefer you were going to sit a spell. In that time you don't earn a penny. You drive by the mile not by the hour. You don't move you don't get paid.
In general a weekend home every two weeks caught my aviable drive hours up if I was out of time.