A laboratory lathe that killed a Yale University student lacked required safeguards, and the accident reveals flaws in the school’s safety policies, federal safety investigators say.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, while faulting the university, didn’t impose a fine because the victim, Michele Dufault, a senior from Scituate, Mass., wasn’t a Yale employee.
But in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, OSHA told Yale officials that it found problems in the machine shop where Dufault was killed on April 12 after her hair became ensnared in the fast-spinning lathe. She was working alone at the time.
Yale disputed the findings, saying the machinery met national safety standards and that “OSHA’s assessment contains a number of significant inaccuracies.”
The lathe, built in 1962, was not equipped with an emergency stop button that could have cut off the power. The machine also had no physical guards to protect the operator, OSHA said.
Rules for operating the equipment, including warnings, were not posted, OSHA added, saying that Yale should make sure students don’t work alone and should establish specific hours of operation. Yale also should put a formal training program in place, OSHA said.
Yale says it provided extensive machine tool training and personal protective equipment, and that students were repeatedly told not to use machinery without someone else present. Yale also said that Dufault, a physics and astronomy major who was close to graduation, completed a safety course that included instructions to tie back long hair.
The university, however, said it has begun stepping up safety measures.
