People killed when their hair got caught in something include everyone from industrial workers to people doing everyday activities. While many ponytail deaths were a result of working in unsafe conditions with little training, others were simply people going about their business and doing something ordinary, like riding an escalator or driving.
In many instances of people who died in hair-related accidents, the death was immediate, with the victim being pronounced dead at the scene. Others died in agony, or of multiple injuries. And in one case, a young girl was brain dead, and only kept on life support for the purposes of removing and donating her organs.
Here are some notable ponytail- and other hair-related deaths.
People Killed By Their Own Ponytails,
Dawn Brancheau
A senior animal trainer at SeaWorld, Brancheau was killed when the six-ton killer whale she was working with in a show grabbed her ponytail and pulled her underwater. Because of the whale's size and aggression, SeaWorld personnel weren't able to get to her right away, and she suffered a number of traumatic injuries, and drowned. In the aftermath of the incident, SeaWorld banned trainers from performing with orcas, and will be phasing out keeping killer whales altogether. Other accounts have surfaced saying she was pulled under by her arm, which was ripped off.
Francisca Gomez
Gomez was working alone on a processing line at Crookham Company, an Idaho seed plant, when her hair became caught in one of the machines. She was slammed against the machinery, and died of internal injuries and asphyxiation. She was married with eight children, and was nearing retirement when the accident took place. The incident is currently under investigation by OSHA.
Emma Kringle
Thirteen-year-old Nebraska native Emma Kringle was killed when her ponytail was caught in the engine clutch of the ATV she was driving in her grandparents' backyard. She lost control of the vehicle, and was thrown off, with the ATV landing on her. She was pronounced brain-dead at a local hospital, and was taken off life support after her organs were harvested.
Sailendra Nath Roy
50-year-old Indian stuntman Roy died in 2013 during an attempt to cross the Teesta River, in Darjeeling, on a zip-line. Suspended only by his ponytail, Roy was about halfway over the river when his hair got caught in the wheel mechanism of the zip-line. Roy attempted to get his ponytail unstuck, then tried to keep moving using his hands, but had a heart attack while suspended, and in the 45 minutes it took to get him down, he died.
Woman in Hong Kong Laundry
A woman working in a laundry in Hong Kong was killed when her hair was caught between two industrial rollers, and her head was apparently crushed. The woman died at the scene, and the incident was deemed an accident.
Michele Dufault
Yale physics student Dufault was just weeks away from graduating, and was working on her thesis late at night in the physics department machine shop. While there, her hair became caught in a lathe, a rotating machine that holds wood or metal being shaped. She was strangled and died of a broken neck. OSHA investigated the incident, and found that the lathe had improper safeguards. This led to a review of safety procedures around the Ivy League.
Doug McKay
As co-owner of Idaho amusement park ride company Paradise Amusements, McKay was responsible for maintenance of machines, and ensuring their safety. As part of this, he was lubricating the tracks of the ride Super Loop 2 at a fair in Idaho - while it was operating. A car went over his head, catching his hair and pulling him between 30 and 40 feet in the air. He essentially had the top of his head torn off, hit the car several more times, and landed on a fence. The accident took place in front of a large crowd, many of whom were splattered with McKay's blood. After shutting down for an hour, the fair continued.
Western Rock Company Employee
An employee at Upland, California's Western Rock Company was standing on a 17-foot-tall platform while greasing machinery in a working concrete plant. The plant was operational, and the worker's pony tail became caught in the moving parts of the machine's pulley. Trying to dislodge himself, he lost his balance and fell through an unguarded opening, dying on impact.
Naima Rharouity
Rharouity was 47 and a mother of two when she was killed after her scarf and hair got caught in the teeth of an escalator at the Fabre metro station in Montreal in 2014. She was apparently wearing both a scarf and hijab while riding the escalator, when the scarf became stuck in the step behind her, then got tangled up with her long hair. She was strangled to the point of losing consciousness, and went into cardiac arrest.
Peter Uon
Uon was working as a fire watch at Pennsylvania's Mid-Atlantic Packaging. He was crouched down, with his head in a large gluing machine while another worker burned excess glue off with a torch. However, the gluing machine needed to be operating to be cleaned, and when Uon tried to move his head out, his ponytail was caught in the machine's shaft. He was partially scalped and died from a broken neck due to the impact. The company was cited by OSHA for a number of violations, as Uon had never been trained in the use of the gluing machine.