Steering Toward Better Sleep for Ship Pilots
The pilot with sleep apnea who sideswiped the Bay Bridge with his container ship, dumping nearly 54,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay has decided to retire rather than face a hearing before the state commission, news outlets
reported last week.
Investigators had already probed John Cota's reported sleep disorder, his medication usage, and misinformation on his medical records. But had Cota testified before the pilot commission, the testimony could have been used against him in several pending federal court cases.
"I have only one option and that is to retire effective Oct. 1, 2008," Cota wrote in the June 23 letter to the State Board of Pilot Commissioners that was obtained by the Associated Press.
Cota is not the first pilot to direct his ship into an obstacle. The website gCaptain has an entire blog devoted to ship crashes. This one from Ship Accident Photo of the Week shows a ship that ran into a house after its captain fell asleep. The very same incident is chronicled on youtube.com and complimented with a battery of links to other maritime crashes. (Watch video news coverage by clicking here.)
Fatigue plays a role in a "worrying number" of collisions on near misses, the U.K. chief maritime investigator in 2004 told BBC News. The Scandanavian Shipping Gazette followed up with a 2007 report showing that 73 percent of officers keeping watch fell asleep while on duty.
So what prevents the shipping industry for implementing better sleep hygiene among sailors and better diagnosis among those with sleep disorders?
Long hours at watch and additional administrative tasks cut into sleep time, says one study. Online maritime communities are looking for a solution. In the meantime, they turn to articles like this one: How to cheat sleep.