Federal regulators, reacting to a deadly derailment that they blame on an engineer's sleepiness, are recommending better training for the nation's doctors in identifying and treating sleep disorders.
Another recommendation adopted Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board urges railroads to routinely screen "safety-sensitive" employees for sleep disorders.
The board also called for a model national labor agreement that supports such screening.
In all, the NTSB adopted 19 conclusions and 17 recommendations stemming from five Metro-North accidents in New York and Connecticut.
The five crashes were between May 2013 and March 2014 and are blamed for six deaths and 126 injuries, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The board concluded last month that a Dec. 1 derailment that killed four people in the Bronx happened when the engineer fell asleep at the controls. It said his fatigue was caused by obstructive sleep apnea, which he did not know he had.
The first of the five crashes happened on the evening of May 17, 2013. A train heading eastbound derailed in Bridgeport and was struck by a train heading eastbound. At least 65 people were hurt.
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Eleven days later, a Metro-North employee was struck and killed on tracks in West Haven.
On July 18, 2013, a train derailed in the Bronx, New York and on March 10 of this year, an employee was killed in Manhattan.
