The cause of last week's devastating Amtrak derailment that killed eight people, including a US Naval Academy midshipman, and injured dozens more remains under investigation and may take up to a year to ascertain. But one factor that may have contributed to the accident has to do with a shift change and a fatigued engineer.

Engineer Brandon Bostian's May 12 shift had been "grueling" to begin with, say representatives of Railroad Workers United, an advocacy group of freight and passenger rail workers. So, when equipment-related delays on his earlier train to Washington DC cut into his much needed rest break, the potential for danger escalated.

That train arrived 26 minutes late, leaving just an hour for Bostian to rest and eat before his next scheduled train back to New York. It was that train that derailed in Philadelphia when it approached a curve at 106 mph - more than twice the speed it should have been traveling at that point.

For decades, engineers were given 90-minute breaks between trips. Recently, however, Amtrak cut break times to 60 minutes, despite a report that company employees reported nearly 117,000 instances of working 16 hours or more in 2013. More than 80 percent of the employees claiming such long workdays were train conductors or engineers, yet federal regulations limit an engineer to 12-hour shifts.

The change in break allowances was condemned by rail unions as "a disaster in the making." But even Congress turned a deaf ear to advocates' warnings. The Philadelphia crash came just six weeks later.

"You are talking about very high speed track, you're talking about a lot of decision making going on at the time and there are human needs involved," said Railroad Workers United Co-Chair John Paul Wright of tracks in the Northwest Corridor. "You need to be able to have some time to take a break before you go back to a very intense job."

Meanwhile, Amtrak official maintain that 60-minute breaks meet federal regulations and say changes are part of a new scheduling approach designed to address quality-of-life issues crew members.

We here at RailJustice believe that those in such high-responsibility positions must be allowed adequate rest for the safety of passengers, crew and everyone in areas where trains travel. If you are a railway employee who has experienced or witnessed potentially dangerous situations at work, don't be afraid to speak up. Call 888-519-RAIL to speak with a dedicated Federal Rail Safety Act attorney.