By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 09:19 EST, 13 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 09:27 EST, 13 January 2014 . The driver of the train that derailed in New York last month, killing four people and injuring dozens more, had consistently been working a demanding overtime schedule in the years leading up to last month’s fatal derailment, payroll records have shown. William Rockefeller, who has been suspended without pay since the crash, worked an average of 762 overtime hours per year in 2010, 2011 and 2012, according to MTA data. On the basis that Metro-North drivers work a typical 40-hour work week of five eight-hour shifts, that's the equivalent of working a sixth day every week for three years straight. William Rockefeller, who has been suspended without pay since the Metro-North crash in early December, has worked an average of six days a week for the past three years . The reliance on overtime scheduling along the Metro-North line has been described as ‘shocking’ by U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel,  a Democrat who represents the Bronx district where the train derailed. As well as requesting payroll records for Rockefeller, NBC New York also requested information for 20 of the highest paid Metro-North engineers in 2010, 2011 and 2012. They found that one train operator worked 1,183 overtime hours in 2011, which works out to an average of 23 hours of overtime every week. Another top overtime earner made a staggering $71,000 in overtime on top of $98,000 in regular pay in 2011. That works out to 1,222 overtime hours in a single year or the equivalent of working eight days a week. Horrifying: The high-speed train derailment that killed four people has led the MTA to adopt several new safety measures . The records show that Rockefeller earned almost $45,000 in overtime pay in 2012, almost double the $23,000 average for Metro-North engineers that year. Union rules allow the most senior Metro-North train operators to have first claim on overtime hours, but this can lead to a handful of veteran engineers working extreme loads of overtime, while others get relatively few extra shifts. Engel has said that he will ask the federal government to make recommendations on reforming overtime rules for train operators. ‘It may be that people will have to be hired, because obviously if there are shifts people are working - all kinds of hours, day-in, day-out, month-in, month-out, year-in, year-out – it’s not good for anybody,’ he said. An MTA spokesman stressed to NBC that Metro-North fully complies with hours of service rules enforced by the Federal Railroad Administration. Union rules allow the most senior Metro-North train operators to have first claim on overtime hours, but this can lead to a handful of veteran engineers working extreme loads of overtime . Rockefeller claims he fell into 'a hypnosis-like daze' when his train ran off the rails along a curve on the outskirts of New York while travelling at 82 mph at the beginning of December. His lawyer Jeffrey Chartier said the engineer experienced a nod or ‘a daze,’ almost like road fatigue or the phenomenon sometimes called highway hypnosis. He couldn't say how long it lasted. What Rockefeller remembers is ‘operating the train, coming to a section where the track was still clear - then, all of a sudden, feeling something was wrong and hitting the brakes,’ Chartier said. ‘... He felt something was not right, and he hit the brakes.’ He called Rockefeller ‘a guy with a stellar record who, I believe, did nothing wrong.’ ‘You've got a good guy and an accident,’ he said. ‘... A terrible accident is what it is.’ Rockefeller ‘basically nodded,’ said Anthony Bottalico, leader of the rail employees union, relating what he said the engineer told him. ‘He had the equivalent of what we all have when we drive a car,’ Bottalico said. ‘That is, you sometimes have a momentary nod or whatever that might be.’ In the wake of the crash, investigators quickly determined that the deadly train derailment was not caused by any technical problems with the train itself as the driver had originally claimed.
Pay records show William Rockefeller had worked the equivalent of six days a week for three years .
He has been suspended without pay following early December crash which killed four .
Union rules allow the most senior .
Metro-North train operators to have first claim on overtime hours .
Another driver worked the equivalent of eight days a week in 2011 .
By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 09:19 EST, 13 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 09:27 EST, 13 January 2014 . The driver of the train that derailed in New York last month, killing four people and injuring dozens more, had consistently been working a demanding overtime schedule in the years leading up to last month’s fatal derailment, payroll records have shown. William Rockefeller, who has been suspended without pay since the crash, worked an average of 762 overtime hours per year in 2010, 2011 and 2012, according to MTA data. On the basis that Metro-North drivers work a typical 40-hour work week of five eight-hour shifts, that's the equivalent of working a sixth day every week for three years straight. William Rockefeller, who has been suspended without pay since the Metro-North crash in early December, has worked an average of six days a week for the past three years . The reliance on overtime scheduling along the Metro-North line has been described as ‘shocking’ by U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel,  a Democrat who represents the Bronx district where the train derailed. As well as requesting payroll records for Rockefeller, NBC New York also requested information for 20 of the highest paid Metro-North engineers in 2010, 2011 and 2012. They found that one train operator worked 1,183 overtime hours in 2011, which works out to an average of 23 hours of overtime every week. Another top overtime earner made a staggering $71,000 in overtime on top of $98,000 in regular pay in 2011. That works out to 1,222 overtime hours in a single year or the equivalent of working eight days a week. Horrifying: The high-speed train derailment that killed four people has led the MTA to adopt several new safety measures . The records show that Rockefeller earned almost $45,000 in overtime pay in 2012, almost double the $23,000 average for Metro-North engineers that year. Union rules allow the most senior Metro-North train operators to have first claim on overtime hours, but this can lead to a handful of veteran engineers working extreme loads of overtime, while others get relatively few extra shifts. Engel has said that he will ask the federal government to make recommendations on reforming overtime rules for train operators. ‘It may be that people will have to be hired, because obviously if there are shifts people are working - all kinds of hours, day-in, day-out, month-in, month-out, year-in, year-out – it’s not good for anybody,’ he said. An MTA spokesman stressed to NBC that Metro-North fully complies with hours of service rules enforced by the Federal Railroad Administration. Union rules allow the most senior Metro-North train operators to have first claim on overtime hours, but this can lead to a handful of veteran engineers working extreme loads of overtime . Rockefeller claims he fell into 'a hypnosis-like daze' when his train ran off the rails along a curve on the outskirts of New York while travelling at 82 mph at the beginning of December. His lawyer Jeffrey Chartier said the engineer experienced a nod or ‘a daze,’ almost like road fatigue or the phenomenon sometimes called highway hypnosis. He couldn't say how long it lasted. What Rockefeller remembers is ‘operating the train, coming to a section where the track was still clear - then, all of a sudden, feeling something was wrong and hitting the brakes,’ Chartier said. ‘... He felt something was not right, and he hit the brakes.’ He called Rockefeller ‘a guy with a stellar record who, I believe, did nothing wrong.’ ‘You've got a good guy and an accident,’ he said. ‘... A terrible accident is what it is.’ Rockefeller ‘basically nodded,’ said Anthony Bottalico, leader of the rail employees union, relating what he said the engineer told him. ‘He had the equivalent of what we all have when we drive a car,’ Bottalico said. ‘That is, you sometimes have a momentary nod or whatever that might be.’ In the wake of the crash, investigators quickly determined that the deadly train derailment was not caused by any technical problems with the train itself as the driver had originally claimed.
Rockefeller, who has been suspended without pay three years straight. William Rockefeller, who Metro-North crash in early December, has worked an average of six days a week for the past three overtime hours in 2011, which works out to an allow the most senior Metro-North train operators Union rules allow the most senior Metro-North train operators to have first claim on overtime