Safety safety safety........can't be stressed enough especially for those new to some of these tools. Thought I would post this as a reminder to that. Respect the tools your using.
Yale student asphyxiated in lathe accident at chemistry lab, medical examiner rules
NEW HAVEN — A Yale University student from Massachusetts died in an accident Tuesday night at the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory, Yale officials said Wednesday.
Michele Dufault’s hair got caught in a lathe, a piece of machinery that spins very quickly, and it pulled her in, sources said. The state medical examiner’s office reported that Dufault died from accidental asphyxia by neck compression.
Yale President Richard C. Levin, in a statement issued Wednesday evening, called the incident “a true tragedy,” and said he is initiating a “thorough review of the safety policies and practices of laboratories, machine shops, and other facilities with power equipment that is accessed and operated by undergraduates.”
Levin said Dufault’s body was found by other students who had been working in the building. He did not say what time the discovery was made. The president said the students called police, who responded immediately. Fire officials reported being called to the scene at 2:33 a.m.
At Saybrook residential college Wednesday night, more than 150 people gathered to remember the young woman, recalling a warm and welcoming smile and brilliant, curious intellect. Students and top administrators held candles in memory of Dufault, who was just months from graduating.
The Yale marching band, in which Dufault had played saxophone, played her favorite selection, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
“She was very enthusastic about everything she did, and she was just extremely friendly,” said Jean-Luc Mosely. “I can’t think of a day when I havent seen her smile.”
Atid Kimelman, a sophomore, came out with other band members seeking comfort.
“I guess I’ll remember her with a saxophone in her hand, smiling at a game,” he said.
Levin put Steven Girvin, deputy provost for science and technology, in charge of the review. Until that is completed, Levin said Yale College will limit undergraduate access to facilities with power equipment to hours that will be specified by the end of the week, and said monitors will be present.
“The safety of our students is a paramount concern,” Levin said in the statement.
Dufault’s parents came to the campus Wednesday and will return before the end of the semester for a memorial service to honor their daughter.
A New Haven fire official said the department responded to an emergency call at the lab at 2:33 a.m. When examined by fire personnel, Dufault reportedly had no pulse, according to officials who turned the scene back over to Yale police.
Dufault was found sitting at a metal lathe with her hair wrapped around part of the machine. A lathe is a machine used for shaping wood, metal or other material by way of a rotating drive that turns the material being worked on against cutting tools.
Dufault reportedly was using the machine as she worked on her senior project.
An employee at the Bridgeport office of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration early Wednesday said they only have jurisdiction over accidents that involve paid workers.
But by early afternoon, Ted Fitzgerald, spokesman for the OSHA office in Boston, said that, after more fact-gathering, OSHA decided to open an investigation. He described it as a “fine line,” since Dufault was a student and not a worker, but because the equipment in question could expose employees to a potential hazard, OSHA can come in. Fitzgerald said it would review whether safety standards were followed; if there was a violation, OSHA could potentially cite the university and impose a fine.
City officials said they are not responsible for reviewing safety issues at Yale. That function is the purview of the university’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, which has some 50 workers, with a safety manager assigned to each building.
The department is charged with training of staff and students, “workplace evaluation, emergency response, hazardous materials management from acquisition to disposal, and by managing regulatory information,” according to its website.
Students and staff who had completed a shop course are the only ones allowed to use the machine shop in the basement of the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory, according to the chemistry department’s website.
Officials did not return calls seeking information on what that training involves and whether students are allowed to work unsupervised.
Dufault, as part of the highly selective Yale Drop Team, which works with NASA on experiments conducted at the Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, participated twice in the program. It gives teams of undergraduates from across the country the chance to propose, design, build, fly and evaluate reduced-gravity experiments. Previous articles on the Drop Team describe the students designing material for their experiments in the machine shop.
Yale Secretary Linda Koch Lorimer sent an email to the Yale community that said: “I am deeply saddened to inform you that Michele Dufault, a Yale senior in Saybrook College, died last night in what appears to have been a terrible accident involving a piece of equipment in the student machine shop in Sterling Chemistry Laboratory.”
News of the accident quickly spread.
“As you can imagine, this news is very sad for folks here, and, in fact, some are just learning of it,” said Stephanie Murphy, head of public information at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, Mass.
Dufault was part of a highly selective summer program at Woods Hole last summer for science, math and engineering majors.
“She worked closely with WHOI scientists who design and operate robotic vehicles to make remote chemical and other measurements in the ocean. The WHOI community is deeply saddened by the loss of such an intelligent young woman with such high potential,” said Jim Yoder, dean of academic programs at the institution.
Dufault was a 2007 graduate of the Noble and Greenough School in Massachusetts, which she attended for six years, beginning in the seventh grade.
“Michele was an extraordinary young woman, one of the most precocious students who her teachers ever encountered,” said Head of School Robert P. Henderson Jr.
“She was simply brilliant. Her mind, her sense of curiosity, her perceptiveness, her sensitivity, and her enjoyment of what she did were extraordinary. She was a true intellectual. She was also distinctly humble, seemingly unaffected by her prodigious talent and academic attainments,” he said. “Those who knew her were drawn to her personal strength, modesty, good humor and perseverance. Her successes here touched almost every aspect of the school’s program.”
According to a 2009 story in the Yale Daily News, Dufault volunteered at an event at Sloane Physics Laboratory during which female students from the area were invited to participate in science experiments.
“It’s nice for the girls to be able to ask questions and say what they want without being judged by guys,” Dufault, who was volunteering at the event, was quoted in the Yale Daily News as having said. “Almost all of the volunteers and scientists involved with this program are women — showing the girls that women can succeed in the sciences. I wish I had that opportunity at their age.”
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