Connecticut Student Killed When Lab Machine Snags Hair

A Yale University student nearing graduation was killed inside a school chemistry lab when her hair was pulled into a piece of machine-shop equipment, school officials said Wednesday.

Michele Dufault, a senior majoring in physics and astronomy, died Tuesday night after her hair became caught in a fast-spinning lathe, university President Richard Levin said. Her body was found by other students who had been working in the building, he said.

“This is a true tragedy,” Levin wrote in a message to Yale students and faculty.

In a Facebook profile picture, Dufault is shown with long brown hair that fell below her shoulders. She died from accidental asphyxia by neck compression, according to the Connecticut medical examiner’s office. New Haven authorities received a 911 call about the accident at around 2:30 a.m., police spokesman Joe Avery said.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an inspection that will look into factors surrounding the accident and whether the lab complied with safety standards, said Ted Fitzgerald, an agency spokesman in Boston.

Dufault was from Scituate, Mass., and was graduating in a month, said her grandfather Robert Dufault. She studied constantly and loved sports, he said.

“She was a living saint,” the grandfather said. “She was a good, smart girl.”

An uncle called her brilliant.

“She’s a wonderful, wonderful kid and that should be celebrated. There’s nothing but good things to say about her,” said Frederick Dufault, of Holliston, Mass.

Dufault intended to work in oceanography after graduating and played saxophone in the Yale Band, Levin said.

At the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Mass., where Dufault graduated in 2007, Head of School Robert Henderson Jr. said those who knew her were drawn to her personal strength, modesty, good humor and perseverance.

“Michele was an extraordinary young woman, one of the most precocious students who her teachers ever encountered,” Henderson said. “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.”

On its website, Yale’s chemistry department says it maintains a state-of-the-art machine shop in which students, faculty and staff can build or modify research instruments. Access is limited to those who have completed a shop course, according to the website.

Levin, the university president, said he has initiated a review of the safety policies and practices of laboratories, machine shops and other facilities where undergraduates have access to power equipment. He said access will be limited to those facilities until the review is completed and monitors will be present.

“The safety of our students is a paramount concern,” he said.

Yale was offering counseling to students. The lab was closed Wednesday and classes were canceled in the building that houses the lab.

Yale police are leading the investigation, New Haven police spokesman Avery said.