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She caught her hair in a lathe in machine shop:
Yale Student Killed as Hair Gets Caught in Lathe (New York Times)
Yale Student Killed as Hair Gets Caught in Lathe (New York Times)
AlephZero said:You have to feel sorry for those she left behind, but it appears from the article this is the age-old problem: "Safety rules and regulations only apply to other people, I know better." Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Astronuc said:It only takes an instant and it's over.
ideasrule said:I've always been skeptical about girls with long hair in a machine shop. That seems like a perfect recipe for disaster. I notice Yale's regulations do say that hair should be tied up, and if she forgot to do that, it's completely her fault--you can't have loose hair beside an operating lathe and expect everything to be fine. Otherwise, freak accidents do happen even with reasonable safety precautions, so this one incident might not indicate any serious safety problems.
DaveC426913 said:I'd be more concerned about why she was in there late and unsupervised.
ideasrule said:Because she was building equipment for her senior thesis, and had already taken more than enough machine shop courses to be trusted in the workshop. I don't go to Yale, but my school has very similar rules: after taking a three-week machine shop course, you're free to go in whenever you want.
We're not talking about 12-year-olds here. A Yale senior "taking an advanced course on machine shop protocols this semester" shouldn't need to be supervised at all times, and one freak accident does not imply otherwise.
lisab said:Supervised, no. But I've never worked in a lab that allowed people to work alone with hazards that can kill you.
What lisab said:ideasrule said:We're not talking about 12-year-olds here.
lisab said:Supervised, no. But I've never worked in a lab that allowed people to work alone with hazards that can kill you.
Being found working alone in a machine shop would mean instant suspension from work pending an inquiry, and most likely dismissal, with my employers. That's not an unenforecable threat, since we have security staff on site 24/7 making regular patrols.cobalt124 said:My understanding for the U.K. is it doesn't even have to be a hazardous work environment. Certainly my (local government) employer does not allow people to work alone at all, just in case of heart attack for example. Of course this rule is serially flouted.
If I was running the inquiry into this accident, my first question would be "do you keep records of all informal and formal H&S warnings given for breaches of H&S practices, and if so how many warnings have you issued in the last 12 months".This is a tragic accident. Nobody should take Health and Safety for granted, but most do.
It's possible that it broke her neck, and her spinal chord was pinched such that her respiration stopped. If the lathe was turning fast and had a lot of torque, then it would have been quick. It also could have pinned on the machine.DaveC426913 said:I would have thought that death would have been from massive head trauma or from fractured neck, but cause of death was ruled as "asphyxiation due to neck compression" which leads me to believe she was pinned to the machine and suffocated. I guess she was pinned in such as way as to be unable to reach the emergency shut off. Or she was knocked unconscious.
http://www.necn.com/04/13/11/Yale-student-dies-in-machine-shop-accide/landing_newengland.html?blockID=503406&feedID=4206We see her at the first startling moment of weightlessness, and looking in at scientific instruments and being spun in weightlessness, and happily doing push-ups. She found joy in scientific discovery.
Astronuc said:When I use power tools or equipment, I'll wear safety glasses or visor, gloves, and possibly an apron as necessary. When I visit a manufacturing operation, if I wear a tie, I would put tie inside the shirt. I'd have to tie my hair back now. I'd probably have to wear a visor as well.
Astronuc said:I occasionally get beard hairs caught in things. I lose a few now and then.
Ouabache said:As a physics student, I wonder if she was a member of PF?
(perhaps someone can check our registration book).
Ouabache said:Can facial hair become caught in equipment ?
chronon said:I would guess that there would have been a lot of safety instruction related to the 'sciency' things she did, most of which could be safely ignored. When it comes to more everyday things such as workshop equipment the attitude should be 'this is where the dangers really are'.
AlephZero said:If the answers are "no" or "yes and zero", then don't blame the victim, sack the entire H&S department.
Ouabache said:One time I accidentally left the chuck key in the lathe spindle and subsequently watched it spin and fling across the room.
If you are going to use statistics, you need to factor the rate for the amount of time spent operating the equipment For somebody employed as a machinist, that would be maybe 30 hours a week on average, allowing for machine setup time etc. For students, to use the "quarter million" figure you need to average the shop time over their whole period of education. My guess is the average over all STEM students, including those who never do any shop work at all) would be less than 1 hour a week. Possibly, much less than 1 hour.Vanadium 50 said:One needs to be careful what one concludes about a single point.
The annual fatality rate among machinists is 18.5/100K. There are maybe a quarter million STEM majors at anyone time. When was the time before this when you last heard of a student machine shop fatality?
AlephZero said:You have to feel sorry for those she left behind, but it appears from the article this is the age-old problem: "Safety rules and regulations only apply to other people, I know better." Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Ouabache said:For example, here's another university accident.
In 2008, a http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/lab-assistant-dies-of-injuries-78543.aspx" was working with t-butyl lithium in the lab. She accidentally caught herself on fire and it engulfed her clothes. She had 3rd degree burns on 40% of her body and died within two weeks. With stricter precautions, could this tragedy been averted?
For example, here's another university accident.
In 2008, a 23 year old UCLA researcher was working with t-butyl lithium in the lab. She accidentally caught herself on fire and it engulfed her clothes. She had 3rd degree burns on 40% of her body and died within two weeks. With stricter precautions, could this tragedy been averted?
DaveC426913 said:Ugh. That's awful.
I would have thought that death would have been from massive head trauma or from fractured neck, but cause of death was ruled as "asphyxiation due to neck compression" which leads me to believe she was pinned to the machine and suffocated. I guess she was pinned in such as way as to be unable to reach the emergency shut off. Or she was knocked unconscious.