Rehearsing for a Major Accident in a Metro Control Centre: A Naturalistic Analysis of Situation Awareness

Introduction: Drawing on Peircean philosophy, this paper argues that shared situation awareness and decision making can be viewed as a process consisting of ‘semiosis’ or ‘perception-action cycles’: action is derived from perception of a ‘sign’ while each course of action implies meaningful basis for further action. Method: We analysed observation data of an accident rehearsal in a metro traffic control centre. The method includes interpretation of how courses of action are linked to each other and to situation awareness; it provides an overall description of how situation awareness is constructed in activity. Results and discussion: The process of creating situation awareness was heavily mediated; several individuals were needed for conveying knowledge from the scene of accident to the emergency response. The overall interaction pattern is explainable with the division of tasks in the control centre. The results point to practical ideas on how to streamline the flow of communication.