Slush Pile: Shocking mistake

2007 Slush Pile

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Shocking mistake

2007 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Pretty much speaks for itself:

Norberg said it appears that Steffey, while trying to get inside the coed dorm to retrieve a coat he left there before a party, tried several doors and somehow opened one that led to the utility room containing high-voltage equipment.

The door is about 50 yards from where someone matching his description was seen trying to get in the dorm.

To access it the room, he would have had to either jump over or go under metal rails that encase a lowered area that lies before the door. The area is four to five feet below the ground level, and there are no stairs that lead to it.

Officials suspect that Steffey, while groping around the pitch-black room, tripped over some wires and fell, touching the high voltage wire as he did so.

Asked why Steffey may have needed his coat, Norberg said it was chilly that January evening. She did not know whether he had had a wallet or anything he would need to get into his nearby Cary Quadrangle residence hall.

The danger zone

According to Dale Steffey, who spoke at length with the coroner, his son apparently touched a conductor that connects an electrical wire to a transformer inside the room. The contact, which may have been with only one finger, sent enough voltage through him to kill him.

"And the only dangerous spot in the room is where this wire contacts the transformers," Dale Steffey said.

The room has two entrances, from inside and from outside, and both should have been locked. But authorities found the outside door unlocked on Monday.

Norberg said officials did check the room during one of numerous on-campus searches for Steffey. But he apparently was not visible from either door.

The searchers did not go farther inside because the equipment is dangerous, and they had no reason to suspect that Steffey was there, Norberg said.

The exterior door has no sign warning people of the danger inside. But the interior door, which is across from Owen's student laundry room, has a sign that says "Danger High Voltage Qualified Personnel Only."

Another sign warns people to stay 25 inches away from live, exposed electrical parts.

Norberg said there is no requirement that signs be posted outside of such rooms, further adding that she thinks it actually could encourage some risktakers to enter.

A utility worker found Steffey's body Monday after she was told about a popping noise coming from the room. She entered from the inside door and went farther into the room because of an odd odor, Norberg said.

It's not clear whether that smell was coming from Steffey. Joe Mikesell, Purdue's senior director of engineering, utilities and construction, said he believes that Steffey's body was still conducting electricity into the ground, which caused the popping sound.

Mikesell said he didn't know why it wasn't heard earlier.

"It would just be speculation on my part to say anything more about it," he said.

He said the transformers in the room generate heat, which is sent outside through a vent. The temperature inside tends to be slightly above that of the outside air, he said.

He said that utility rooms also tend to be dry.

Ralph Williams, a Purdue professor of entomology and forensic entomologist, speculated on a couple of reasons why no one noticed an odor earlier, noting that he hadn't actually examined Steffey's body.

Many of the insects that help decompose bodies are not active during the winter, he said. And the dry conditions inside the room might have preserved the body.

"With low humidity, you get an evaporation of moist body tissue," Williams said. "That would prevent a decomposition odor."

Submitted on 03/21/2007

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference: http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/NEWS0501/703210348/1152/NEWS

>> Moderator Scores <<

Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: Repeat
Thanks, but we've already gotten this story a few times. Please keep sending new ones to us though - they're always appreciated!

James said:
Definitely Toss: Repeat
A more detailed account of this story we already have, but it's still a tragic accident, IMO, rather than an act of stupidity. Thanks just the same for the submission, we DO appreciate it!

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2007 Slush Pile

Shocking mistake

2007 Reader Submission Pending Acceptance

>> The Darwin Awards, by Wendy Northcutt << Link to Fight Evil.

2007 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

>> The Darwin Awards, by Wendy Northcutt <<
Link to Fight Evil.