In a system for alerting an operator of a vehicle to a highest priority
fault condition, the operating conditions of the vehicle are obtained and
compared to predetermined values in order to identify the fault
conditions of the vehicle. Each of the fault conditions of the vehicle
has a corresponding operator action associated therewith which identifies
the actions that must be performed by the operator in order to manage the
fault condition. By prioritizing the fault conditions on the basis of the
operator actions that are necessary to manage the faults, the system is
able to output to the operator only the operator action associated with
the highest priority fault condition, without any compromise in safety or
additional risk of damage to the vehicle, while providing the ability for
the operator of the vehicle to manage all of the active fault conditions
by performing only the operator action associated with the highest
priority fault condition.