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Pratt Student Loses Fingers in Off-Campus Shop Accident, Sues School and Others (Warning: Graphic Photo)
There's a service dog involved. It's a complicated story
Enter a caption (optional)Brittany Hostman, a former Ceramics major at Pratt Institute, has filed a lawsuit against the school, a power tool manufacturer and a non-Pratt shop after losing two fingers above the second knuckle in a woodworking accident in her final semester. Here are the initial factors, according to the Daily News:
- Hostman "suffers from paralyzing panic attacks and bipolar disorder"
- She relies on a service dog, a Bichon Frise, to snap her out of attacks/episodes
- Last semester, Pratt banned her service dog from campus after it reportedly bit someone
- Hostman denied the charge and protested the ban, to no avail
- Hostman was unwilling to attend class without her service dog
What happened next was unusual: Hostman and Pratt reached an arrangement whereby Hostman could Skype in to classes, then create her projects at Makeville Studio's shop space in Brooklyn, which allowed her to bring her service dog.
Makeville Studio is a community woodshop that offers classes, open studio time and bench space to the public. They require those with no shop experience to take an Intro to Woodworking course, then get checked out on the equipment to attain a Workshop Self-Certification, which is typically an hourlong process. Those with prior experience can skip the Intro course, but must still undergo the certification process. It is not clear from the source article which of these Hostman may have undergone.
Here's what happened next, according to the article:
[Hostman] soon learned that the facility, Makeville Studio in Gowanus, offered far less training and oversight than the studios on campus.
Hostman knew the machines at Pratt well. At the on-campus workshops, at least three monitors kept an eye on the students. At Makeville, Hostman said, there was only one.
"The environment was more like, 'There's the machine, go use it,'" she said.
Hostman was working on a wood-cutting machine at the studio on March 31 when the device malfunctioned and pulverized her left index and middle fingers, the suit says.
Enter a caption (optional)The machine in question was a Powermatic 60HH jointer, and I do wish there was more detail on the nature of the malfunction or of the accident itself, as such information might prove useful to others.
Enter a caption (optional)In any case Hostman, who graduated last semester, is now suing Pratt, Makeville Studio and JPW Industries, the latter being the company that manufactured the jointer.
Without more information I cannot possibly say who was at fault here, and as is usually the case in America, it will be up to the courts to decide.
Those of you who have had a close call on the jointer: What went wrong in your case? Please share the tale.
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Comments
If you get chewed up by a jointer, it is very likely operator error and not some machine malfunction. The mechanics of using a jointer are that you push a piece of wood across a large spinning drum covered with blades. It is very dangerous if you do not know what you are doing, or even if you know what you are doing but are using unfamiliar equipment that may be improperly setup or not properly sharpened. What can happen is that the jointer is set to take too large of a cut on a small or light object and when the operator tries to force the workpiece into the blades, the workpiece is kicked back and the operators hand which had been doing the pushing winds up in the cutter head. I have done this very thing and was lucky to have only lost a small piece of my fingertip, which eventually grew back. The best practice is to use push sticks or push pads (which are typically sold with a machine of this size) whenever possible so that if this happens the push stick gets eaten instead of your fingers...
I clipped the tips of the same two fingers as Hostman on New Years Day of this year. Luckily for me I only lost about 1/16"-1/8" of my middle finger, and the meat lost on my index was less than that. Other than a slightly flatter middle finger, you'd never notice.
I feel sorry for her, evidently she had some hardships prior to this accident and this wont make her life easier.
I am a mechanical engineer and furniture designer-manufacturer. I have worked on and with scores of jointers through my experience of owning and running a luxury furniture design/build business. I readily regard the jointer as the safest machine in my entire shop - with the proper training. There is only one machine failure mode that can cause bodily harm to an unsuspecting user. That failure mode is called "tossing a knife" and is only possible on jointers with straight blades, as opposed to the helical cutterheads. "Tossing a knife" is when a straight blade in a straight blade cutterhead becomes loose and is flung from the machine's cutterhead under an extreme centrifugal force. This is clearly not what happened here for two reasons. Reason one: The machine is a Powermatic 60 HH and the "HH" stands for "Helical Head" which means it has a cutterhead with carbide teeth, not knives - meaning that there would be no knives to "throw." Reason two: The article describes her hand as being "pulverized" implying multiple mincing cuts. That is 100% user error. Any machine failure mode (from a jointer) would have sliced her fingers off nice and clean with surgical precision - unless she literally shoved her fingers into the spinning cutterhead. I believe that suing a maker-space or a "walk-in" shop like this would be a useless endeavor. From my understanding, most shops like these have extensive "no-fault" clauses built into their contracts. As for suing the machinery manufacturer, that is also a lost cause. I would be surprised if they even responded. As for suing Pratt, maybe? Who knows what kind of weird bylaws they have written up to protect themselves from this kind of thing. to the girl who had her fingers amputated by the jointer - a bunch of my friends and family have lost digits to woodworking machines. They lead completely normal lives and are able to do anything. I wish you the best of luck and I am glad you didn't have them reattached. I read a study a few years back that said that the majority of people who had their fingers surgically reattached ended up wanting them removed at a later date because they were more "in the way" than helpful. Best of luck!
Weird that you would say that jointers are by far the safest tool in a shop. I run a wood products manufacturing company, and I would consider my thickness planner or a drill press to the be safest tools. Anything that requires you passing your hands over large fast spinning blades with only the material between you in the blade is not "safe." This by no means suggests that I think it's anything but user error. Operating tools requires skill and training and a personal acceptance of liability.
Isn't it interesting how we all have different opinions on the safest/most dangerous tools! I love that about these comment sections. Cheers, Bert!
Comment on this were the blades dull and in need of beeing sharpened? The sole of the machine not waxed? If so you need much more muscle power to push the board over the rotating knifes. and that is dangerous. But as other already stated - it is an operator fault. If the machine is not 100% you mustnt use it.
What the heck is she suing them for-? Not holding her hands through the whole thing? You don't sue someone for your own lack of skill on a dangerous machine.
Oh my god. She should have never been anywhere near a power magic with her "service dog". Woodworking tools are seriously sharp powerful and strong. Anyone needing a service dog or with any disability should not be allowed to use one.
I don't think the dog was near the machine? I think the dog is why she wasn't able to be in the normal studios on campus.
Here's a simple rule: when you can't fit your open hand between the blade and the extremity of the part to be cut, use a push stick. It's still quite close, but that's how I do it.
With a jointer like this it's even more simple, use a block with a handle over the board at all times...
SawStop has the ability to stop a table saw blade from causing serious injury by forcibly stopping the blade when it detects a finger touch. This company owns the patent on this tech, but the rest of the industry has failed to work out a license for it. We really should push the government to step in and work out a compromise and push forward legislation that requires power tool manufacturers to report injuries and actively work on reducing them. No one wants to lose a finger, especially a student so young in their career. We have the technology to stop these kinds of accidents, just the political will to do it. Sometimes it takes outrageous lawsuits to move things forward.
I agree! It would be great if that technology were the industry standard. Festool purchased SawStop earlier this year, so it's possible we could see some new offerings in the market fairly soon. I know Bosch developed a competing safety measure (although I like theirs better since it doesn't damage the blade) with their Reaxx saw, but SawStop prevented them from entering the US market claiming patent infringement. In the end, it all comes down to liability and money.
I can only imagine unfamiliarity with the tool, and user error. which was sort of eluded to in her comment, "...there's the machine, go use it". I've used jointers like the one pictured above manufactured by Powermatic, Grizzly, and JET over the course of 25 years without incident.
She's conveniently leaving out certain details in her story: she was wearing earphones when this occurred. Her arm was tangled in the earphone wire so she used the wrong hand to push the wood. (This from people who were there and witnessed the accident.)
Liability waivers yes, cameras no. If you put a camera to monitor an area there is an expectation that someone is watching it and is expected to step in when things look wrong (hotels don't put cameras at pools to avoid wrongful death lawsuits for drowning, maker spaces don't put cameras around tools likely to cut fingers, etc.).
That's interesting, Stephen, but I'd be curious to see the case law to back that up. I would think they would not have cameras more for plausible deniability, in case they actually did screw up.