Kevin Warnock

Michele Dufault

My heart goes out to the family of Michele Dufault, an undergraduate student of astronomy and physics at Yale University. Dufault died April 12, 2011 when her hair got caught in the powerful lathe she was using alone late at night in a Yale workshop.

I studied astronomy and physics at UCLA, so the story of Dufault’s death particularly moved me.

“Connecticut’s chief medical examiner ruled the death an accident, citing the cause as asphyxia due to neck compression” read the New York Times newspaper article where I learned of this tragic accident. The article didn’t say so, but something tells me the machine pulled her head into the machine and the rotation of the machine stopped, putting tremendous force on her neck, killing her. Even if she could reach her cell phone, she would likely haven’t been able to say a word, and the pain must have been overwhelming, with the still energized motor straining to continue rotating the work piece.

I shiver even thinking about how awful this death was, and how traumatized the students who discovered her body must be.

I write this post to warn people to be really careful working in the shop. Those with long hair should probably wear a shower cap to completely cover their hair.

When I grind metal, I wear ear muffs, leather work gloves, a respirator mask and a full face shield. I wear a full face shield when I use a drill or cordless screw driver, on the theory that even screws could break apart and hit me in the eye.

I am pleased that TechShop, the membership workshop I’m a member of, has installed a SawStop table saw that will stop the blade nearly instantly if a person touches it. This safety mechanism should be installed on all dangerous power tools, but in particular mills, drills and lathes that have exceedingly high torque that can literally squeeze you to death, even if they don’t cut you.

I don’t know if it’s true, but the SawStop website says there are 10 table saw amputations per day! Here’s a video on the SawStop website describing their safer saw.

I hope that schools don’t shut down their workshops because a beautiful 22 year old student lost her life in an accident. It’s important that students learn how to build things, for the world can’t run on software and ideas alone. In fact, I strongly believe shop class and home economics should be taught to every student that attends school.

I predict that Dufault’s tragic accident will spur dramatic safety improvements in school workshops, for her story is so tragic and her life was so full of promise. Perhaps her friends and family may take comfort that Dufault’s ‘life work’ may turn out to be saving countless others from workshop injuries by shining a bright light on machine safety.

SawStop has patented their technology, but perhaps it can be licensed to makers of tools SawStop doesn’t yet make, so that all the dangerous moving mechanisms of power tools can be outfitted to stop when touched by a person.

Again, my heart goes out to Dufault’s family, friends and colleagues.