1. BODY OF EVIDENCE
We subjected our data to a meticulous process
of inductive analysis in order to derive thematical
insights. We then cross- checked the drivers’ verbal
elaborations with their scenarios, and what we
found was simply extraordinary!
Our analysis revealed that all the train drivers
were saying the same thing. Time pressure!
We deduced this was an important theme, but
why? What were the psychological mechanisms?
We realised that although time keeping was an
important motivation, time pressure was being
experienced as a distraction, and infusing a highly
anxious state. We reasoned that the drivers’
perceptions of the Clock were ‘distorting’ their
impressions of service delivery. At last, the
mechanism had introduced itself!
We then found persistent accounts of yet
another theme, into which everything seemed to
fit. Controller interactions! Drivers contrived to
drive to time but chose to attract much higher
levels of risk, simply to keep the controller at
bay! Time pressure-induced distortion was being
magnified by the requisition to explain time loss.
The distortion grew crooked! Risk of separating
attention from signal awareness increased with
exposure,andgaverisetostartlingtomfooleryand
violatons of safe working! Controller interactions
strengthened our supposition of time pressure and
gaveideatoconstraintfromamostCrookedClock!
The scenarios confessed that the most respectable
method for arresting its elaborate influence was
simply to prioitise tasks, particularly when safety
was being threatened at the extremity.
S y d n e y A u s t r a l i a
WCRR
2013
THE CASE OF THE CROOKED CLOCK
AND THE DISTRACTED DRIVERVOL. MMXIII - No. 1979 SYDNEY, NSW - MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013 FIFTEEN CENTS and WORTH IT
“WE OBSERVED DRIVERS IN THE TRAIN AND THEN CONVERSED
WITH THEM IN FOCUS GROUPS USING A VERY UNIQUE TASK.”
“THE DISTORTION GREW CROOKED!”
“TRAIN DRIVERS, WHILST PERTINACIOUS IN THEIR SAFE
WORKING, CAN BE EASILY SWAYED BY THE HANDS OF TIME.”
www.wcrr2013.org
CONCLUDING REPORT
What are we to make of this fantastic business?
Every train driver has their own inner knowledge
and their own motives, which cannot always be
made clear to outsiders, however well intentioned.
The lesson to be learned is that train drivers,
whilst pertinacious in their safe working, can be
easily swayed by the hands of time. It is feasible to
suppose that controllers are themselves operating
under considerable pressures. This requires data,
and may reveal another dimension to our Crooked
rogue. So it was that we managed to detect, in
the most complete manner a small but important
strand of the SPAD, and unravelled the mystery
of the Crooked Clock and the Distracted Driver.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the drivers and the excellent fellows who
facilitated their recruitment. This case was suported
by the CRC for Rail Innovation (and their monies). We
thank Ganesh Balakrishnan for his art direction and
Stuart Baulk for his assistance with layout.
Story by
ANJUM NAWEED
and SOPHIA RAINBIRD
Appleton Institute, CQUniversity Australia
Original Illustrations by Sidney E Paget
The following case is among the strangest
happenings in our collection. It all began when
a consortium of rail operators approached us to
unravel a piece of a mystery called a “SPAD - ”
an exceedingly unsafe mode of driving where a
train had simply deserted its limits of authority! A
Signal Passed at Danger. A large number of these
were relegated to ‘human error’ at the height of
which was “distraction.” This was not surprising.
Train driving required skillful regulation of safety
as well as performance, and any distraction from
this could disrupt the driver’s engagement with
their signals. Whilst operators entertained many
days free of SPAD villainy, the story ended the
same way regardless. Were there subtle forces
at work here? We deliberated and formed some
conception that every SPAD told its own story.
LINES OF INQUIRY
The game was a-foot! We observed drivers in
the train and then conversed with them in focus
groups using a very unique task. They emulated
performance in difficult SPAD scenarios of their
own design, using the same cognition as they
would to drive a real train. We questioned a total
of 28 train drivers in 8 focus groups, and visited
every passenger rail operator in Australia and
New Zealand, leaving no stone unturned.