Purdue University Settles Lawsuit Over Electrocuted Student
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.
Wade Steffey, a 19-year-old freshman, died Jan. 13 in the utility room, but his body wasn’t discovered until two months later. He was last seen at a fraternity party in the area.
Officials have said Steffey probably walked into the utility room after trying several doors to get into the dorm, where he had stored his coat in a friend’s room.
Under the terms of the settlement, Steffey’s parents give up any further claim to payment from Purdue, said Joseph L. Bennett, Purdue vice president for university relations. A $100,000 endowment will create the Wade Steffey Memorial Scholarship that will be awarded to students from Indiana who attend Purdue.
The $500,000 was paid in a lump sum to Steffey’s parents, Dale Steffey and Dawn Adams of Bloomington, Bennett said in a news release. It was the maximum claim under Indiana law that can be made against a public institution in a wrongful death case, said Mike Miller, an attorney who represented Steffey’s parents. A lawsuit was never filed.
“This agreement brings to a close a tragic chapter in the history of the Purdue family,” Bennett said. “The entire university community continues to mourn for the loss of this young man.”
Dale Steffey, Wade Steffey’s father, said he hopes the settlement prompts other colleges across the country to evaluate their own safety procedures.
“Anger is a very destructive emotion,” Dale Steffey said. “You don’t want to hang on to that very long. This is a way to let that go.”
A report by a consulting group hired by the university concluded that Steffey was electrocuted after his finger touched a transformer’s conductor in the unlocked utility room, which would have been nearly pitch-black inside when he entered.
Purdue officials have said the room was examined, but not thoroughly, during the search for the missing student days after he disappeared. Officials have not been able to explain why the exterior door to the room was unlocked.