Purdue Settles Over Electrocuted Student

[Steve]

The parents of a Purdue University student who was electrocuted in a dormitory's high-voltage utility room have agreed to a settlement in which the school will pay $500,000 to the family and $100,000 for a scholarship endowment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...1/AR2007082101212.html

 

[jagec]

Now colleges have to ensure that their facilities are 100% safe for that most destructive of forces, the young drunk male?

Sounds like a no-win to me.

 

[MrPickins]

They didn't find his body for 2 months?

:barf;

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: MrPickins
They didn't find his body for 2 months?

:barf;

I'm a student here, and I'm very surprised they hadn't found him sooner. They should have had a comprehensive checklist of where to look and signed off on each room in the area instead of getting large area searches put together for the surrounding area.

There was a lot of effort put in by the students here, but the administration needs to have policies in place for events like this and how to respond to them.

 

[BornStar]

Originally posted by: MrPickins
They didn't find his body for 2 months?

:barf;

He was locked in a room that nobody but maintenance had access to and his cell phone was picking up the very edge of a signal so they weren't having luck figuring out where he was from that. I'm not surprised that it took that long to find him; it's a place that probably no student had ever been before.

 

[PottedMeat]

I kinda want to know why the terminals on a high voltage transformer were exposed and not insulated or enclosed in a locked cage.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
I kinda want to know why the terminals on a high voltage transformer were exposed and not insulated or enclosed in a locked cage.

Because only trained people were supposed to be in there.

The same reason why power lines don't have insulators on them.

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
I kinda want to know why the terminals on a high voltage transformer were exposed and not insulated or enclosed in a locked cage.

Because only trained people were supposed to be in there.

The same reason why power lines don't have insulators on them.

energized power lines are at least '20 up in the air when uninsulated, or in a locked fenced area. Something was not right in that room. I have been in equipment rooms in dozens of commercial buildings, and all the high voltage is idiot proofed for a reason. The average "trained person" is just as likely to fry himself as anyone else.

 

[Triumph]

Yeah, initially I thought that this was another frivolous lawsuit (well, settlement), but a simple door is not enough to protect high voltage lines.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Where the hell was this utility room that no one noticed the smell of charred, two-month rotting person? Especially since the article mentioned the room was examined during the search, but they missed him.

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
Where the hell was this utility room that no one noticed the smell of charred, two-month rotting person? Especially since the article mentioned the room was examined during the search, but they missed him.

IIRC my dorm smelled just like that.

 

[Skacer]

Originally posted by: djheater
IIRC my dorm smelled just like that.

Is.... is it laundry month yet?

 

[Nik]

I don't understand how he could have died by looking for his coat in a coat closet. You open the door and look in the room, right? Certainly you don't open the door, close your eyes, and fling yourself into the room, right? How the hell did this darwin-award-winner kill himself by looking for his jacket? I don't get it. 😕

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: djheater

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
Where the hell was this utility room that no one noticed the smell of charred, two-month rotting person? Especially since the article mentioned the room was examined during the search, but they missed him.

IIRC my dorm smelled just like that.

Hey, my dorm reeked in general too, but it wasn't dead person bad.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: GuideBot
I don't understand how he could have died by looking for his coat in a coat closet. You open the door and look in the room, right? Certainly you don't open the door, close your eyes, and fling yourself into the room, right? How the hell did this darwin-award-winner kill himself by looking for his jacket? I don't get it. 😕

Did you read the article at all.....or even look at the thread title?

 

[Syrch]

okay it should have been kept much better than behind an UNLOCKED door!