<p>The journalists in several of the reports appear to believe that no one knows what a lathe is. I think they are probably right. The Yale Daily news felt the need to explain what it was. </p>
<p>Often accidents are caused by something occurring unexpectedly, and not purely simple carelessness. Something breaks or slips while you are working with it and applying force, and you are suddenly physically where you did not intend to be. A sound startles you and your head turns quickly in a direction you wouldn’t otherwise have placed it. Anyone who has done any work with power equipment has many incidents of near misses that all add up to inform your behaviour as you grow older. Sadly, the youngsters don’t have that experience to draw upon yet.</p>
<p>I guess D2 is not going to have any chance at HYPSM because she is going through a bad acne stage now. We have paid for private tutor for SAT, got her a private college counselor, an essay writer, tried to bribe few adcoms. But, darn, are we suppose to pay extra for her to have perfect hair, and no pimples too? I learn something new on CC everyday.</p>
<p>I guess D2 is not going to have any chance at HYPSM because she is going through a bad acne stage now.</p>
<p>Old fort- she can always try for Brown or Cornell.
;)</p>
<p>this is off topic but in news reports they are pronouncing lathe like you pronounce lath when referring to lath & plaster walls for example.
I was wondering if that is how they pronounce lathe on the east coast or if the reporter just did not know how to say it?
Although since it is so central to the story I am assuming this is a regional pronounciation.</p>
<p>No piece of equipment should be that sensitive that a startling sound or minor slip should cause you to lose your life. If a machine can cause serious injury in the absence of carelessness it is clearly defective. If on the other hand the assumption is that only experts can use the equipment safely it should not be provided to students to use. Period. That is why welding equipment is generally off limits in university machine shops. The risks of injury are just too high.</p>
<p>This is a horrific situation for a family that was beginning to plan the celebration of a graduation. My heart goes out to theirs with nothing but sorrow and hope that they can find some measure of something that will help them through these tragic, tragic days. I have no concern or interest in their financial situation nor do I care about this beautiful young woman’s grades or SAT scores, I couldn’t care less what school she went to. Tragic, yes. Accident, probably. Careless, maybe. But, not my job to place blame - and not what is needed right now. Leave that to OSHA, that’s THEIR job.</p>
<p>And, then after reading this entire thread…one can only hope that SOMETIMES the apple really does fall FAR FAR FAR from the tree.</p>
<p>There is a nice youtube video of her Yale Drop Group in which they are experiencing zero gravity (from the link earlier in thread). All the kids are having so much fun and they look so happy. My heart goes out to her family and friends. A horrible accident that could happen to anyone. As we all grow older we realize that everyday is truely a gift. This could have been anyone of our children. Just a horrible accident.</p>
<p>Driving cars and flying jetliners are not inherently dangerous or ultra-hazardous activities. </p>
<p>Arguably skydiving, wreck diving, hunting, white water rafting in rapids, training of wild animals are such activities. Many would argue that operating nuclear power plants (at least in earthquake prone areas) also falls into that category. </p>
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<p>The problem with ultra-hazardous activities is that the risks can simply not easily be mitigated. Often the activities cannot even be insured.</p>
<p>Operating a lathe in a machine shop is typically not classified as an ultra-hazardous activity. Fatal accidents should simply not happen.</p>
In that case either the following should be outlawed or sold only to licensed professionals - chain saws, circular saws, table saws, cars (by which of course many people are killed), ladders, guns, and a huge list of other items. Walk into any Home Depot or Lowes and you can find all kinds of items routinely sold to average people (including some non-ivy-educated mind you) that could potentially cause severe bodily damage if the person doesn’t pay attention or slips. For example, there are a lot of deaths from people using ladders - almost certainly far more than from people using lathes.</p>
<p>Travel by car carries a far higher risk of death than flying scheduled commercial airline flights in the US. One slip while driving a car and you can have a fatal car crash.</p>
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<p>Yet thousands die in car crashes every year.</p>
<p>“However, because students don’t have much experience using dangerous equipment, it should be used under the supervision of a professional shop manager, with strict safety protocols in place.”</p>
<p>Yup - Gourmetmom hit the nail on the head. I hate to sound crass, but Yale needs to ensure that this family does not suffer the indignity of UG debt after this superstar young lady died in their lab.</p>
<p>*If a student has not been taught to have hair pulled back working around machinery, how would she know? Most kids these days have no shop experience anyway. *</p>
<p>This part is really a shame. Back in the day, we had to take several metal and wood shop, and it’s been really useful. Safety precautions, respect for machinery, practical understanding … great classes. I’ve tried to get my own academically oriented kids to take these classes, but without any success. It seems to be only for the kids heading to the trades now.</p>
<p>Yeah - that is a problem. You don’t see many weighted shop classes. Some kids take them over the summer at community colleges, but you are right. There needs to be a proactive effort to ensure that academic kids that are headed toward engineering and science pick up all of these safety skills.</p>
Rhymes with “bathe”. I’d bet most of the news people have never seen one either. </p>
<p>
People are injured and/or killed by all sorts of things, some of them too stupid to contemplate. I once knew a typist who tried to unclog her mower with her hand. Severed/butchered most of her fingers on that hand, requiring major surgeries and a new career. Presumably she knew better. Mowing your lawn is probably not classified as an ultra-hazardous activity either :(.</p>
<p>It seems, from what others are saying here, that the poster who posted obnoxious and disgusting posts on this thread has a habit of doing so over and over, and this is FAR from an isolated incident. Words like c<strong>p and b</strong>** get censored here, and yet hateful obnoxious posters are allowed to remain? What the heck? Why has he/she/it not been banned?
[shaking head in confusion]
The posts about community college students are just despicable. I feel like I need to take a shower after reading such dreck.</p>