Ten Years after the Texas Tech Accident: Part I: A Historical Retrospective

A serious academic laboratory accident occurred at Texas Tech University in January of 2010. As a result of internal assessment and subsequent investigations by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), we have been working on changing the safety climate at Texas Tech University over the past decade from nearly nonexistent or one of compliance to one where there is active work and thoughtfulness on the part of the administration, faculty, staff, and students to strive for improvement. In this two-part series, we explore the Texas Tech accident from a variety of perspectives. In part I we review the accident from a historical perspective as seen through the eyes of the faculty, administrators, and investigators who were principally involved. In part II we will explore how the accident acted as a galvanizing experience for the transformation of the safety culture, with a look at the current state of academic laboratory safety at Texas Tech.