Construction worker dies while charging his phone at Chonburi rooms

[webfact]

Construction worker dies while charging his phone at Chonburi rooms

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

A driver at a construction site died after falling asleep with his earphones in while charging his phone.

 

Withaya Phanthamat, 27, had been listening to music in his bedroom in workers' accommodation in Surasak sub-district of Sri Racha..

 

His cousin Chantika Bunserm, 21, went to call him for dinner and found him dead and called the police.

 

Sri Racha police told Thai Rath that the victim had likely died from electrocution.

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-11-15

[Ossy]

Samsunged to death, you might say . . . it could catch on, as Thais who've had more than enough shit from the top, decide to down tools.

[HLover]

Happy he is pointing at the body, I almost missed it.  Oh, and RIP.

[mikebell]

RIP.  How is such a thing possible?  Faulty wiring?

[Ralf61]

28 minutes ago, mikebell said:

RIP.  How is such a thing possible?  Faulty wiring?

Exactly my question. Are there some engineering guys out there who could explain the process?

[RichardColeman]

Music must have really bad, probably the Muay Thai Quartet does hits of modern jazz !

[wgdanson]

7 hours ago, mikebell said:

RIP.  How is such a thing possible?  Faulty wiring?

Cheap nasty charger. Probably no circuit breaker in the premises. Wonder what he was listening to.............Venus by Shocking Blue?

[Jdietz]

Circuit breaker won't save you. Would need an RCB to give you a chance. Circuit breakers / fuses are to protect the wires, not people.

 

Cause indeed cheap Chinese chargers, with insufficient separation between high voltage and low voltage paths. An ant crawls in and ZAP

 

[aboctok]

7 hours ago, Ralf61 said:

Exactly my question. Are there some engineering guys out there who could explain the process?

Engineering guy here. Not to cast aspersions on the technical proficiency of the Sri Racha police, but on the face of it, their verdict of "likely" seems very unsound. How would they know that such a freak occurrence was likely, other than by testing the phone, the charger, and the ear buds, which surely would've been mentioned if it had been done. The rating of the components would be so low that most likely, they would effectively be destroyed at more than 100 V. Regarding the ear buds themselves (specifically, the casings), it's possible to design a polymer that is not dielectric, but I'd be surprised and appalled if that were true for headphones. To be fair, it's not immediately apparent whether that would hold true at 100 V, but then, that's the kind of testing I was referring to. So it's ridiculous to infer that the victim "likely" suffered electrocution through his ear buds. Even if that did turn out to be the case, it would constitute a freak accident. Until it was shown to be true, it would remain far more likely that he died of some other, less freakish cause. Condolences to his family and friends.

[JayBird]

So basically, many of things would have fried long before he was exposed to a lethal charge? Or potentially all his components were basically exposed wiring?

 

I'm not sure that is realistic. If it were, then most likely anytime anyone listened to music through headphones on a plugged in device (every HAM operator) would have been fried?

 

 

[Jdietz]

Doesn't matter if things fry (which they will do quickly) as long as there is still a current path through your body, which is quite likely (no ground wires, bare feet and concrete). A handful of milliamps at 240V will quickly kill you. Holding anything metal on your phone with a faulty charger will send enough current through you to ground to kill, but not enough to melt the cable.

 

[Jdietz]

Actually this is as good a place as any to urge everyone to install a RCB / Safety Cut device ASAP. They will protect you from these accidents (faulty chargers, water heaters, showers, water pumps) by shutting everything off before it kills you. On high sensitivity you won't even feel it, just suddenly sit in the dark holding a bad wire.

 

[aboctok]

18 minutes ago, Jdietz said:

Circuit breaker won't save you. Would need an RCB to give you a chance. Circuit breakers / fuses are to protect the wires, not people.

 

Cause indeed cheap Chinese chargers, with insufficient separation between high voltage and low voltage paths. An ant crawls in and ZAP

 

That's true, but to my mind, still too freakish. Are we to believe that an arc occurred from inside the dielectric ear bud, to his ear? I would be very skeptical of a claim that a current could be sustained. The lurid Frankensteinian scenario—a potential across the ear buds—is tempting, but only because we've all seen too many movies. I would estimate that to be eye-rollingly UNlikely. Sadly, it looks like the police saw a guy lying dead who was wearing ear phones, and merely from that circumstance, have declared that it was "likely" he was electrocuted through them.

[Jdietz]

I'd also expect him holding the phone as the main conductive path, but maybe there were scorch marks. Anyway being electrocuted by a faulty charger is not a rare occasion and the bare concrete structures here make it a lot easier than back home with insulated everything including rubber lined carpets and wallpaper, while wearing shoes inside.

 

Edited November 15, 2017 by Jdietz

[aboctok]

10 minutes ago, Jdietz said:

I'd also expect him holding the phone as the main conductive path, but maybe there were scorch marks. Anyway being electrocuted by a faulty charger is not a rare occasion and the bare concrete structures here make it a lot easier than back home with insulated everything including rubber lined carpets and wallpaper, while wearing shoes inside.

 

Yes, getting electrocuted through the phone case is entirely different; apologies to the police if the writer of the article has distorted things by leading us down the earphone path:

 

A driver at a construction site died after falling asleep with his earphones in while charging his phone.

Edited November 15, 2017 by aboctok

[balo]

This story is BS. He probably touched some metal in the room and no ground to save him from electrocution. Got nothing to do with ear buds or the phone.

[Foozool]

Perhaps one of those charger cables with metal color fancy shield. 

 

[Dellboy218]

5 hours ago, Jdietz said:

I'd also expect him holding the phone as the main conductive path, but maybe there were scorch marks. Anyway being electrocuted by a faulty charger is not a rare occasion and the bare concrete structures here make it a lot easier than back home with insulated everything including rubber lined carpets and wallpaper, while wearing shoes inside.

 

If the charger did allow 240V through which I would think is an uncommon event I would imagine the phone would leave more than a scorch mark.  If the phone is undamaged look elsewhere. As for holding the phone, are they not all plastic? 

[Jdietz]

here's a couple more for the non-believers:

 

https://www.cnet.com/news/warning-over-faulty-usb-chargers-after-death/

 

Deconstruction of one for the techies, points out dangers nicely:

 

 

[Srikcir]

A similar case in 2013. Possible cause was an Apple clone charger and/or faulty charger cable:

https://www.geek.com/apple/iphone-4s-user-dies-of-electrocution-after-falling-asleep-on-his-phone-while-it-charged-1578342/

 

 

[greenchair]

On 11/15/2017 at 9:31 AM, Ralf61 said:

Exactly my question. Are there some engineering guys out there who could explain the process?

It recently happened in Australia. 

There have warnings around the world. 

So don't blame thailand electric. 

Blame Samsung. 

[gk10002000]

There was a similar case just a few months ago.  Headphones on, phone on the table next to the bed. 

[DD13]

The police should get an expert (western probably more suitable than a "so called expert" from Tuk. Com kiosks)

Check all the equipment....phone, property wiring etc.....find out exactly where the fault lies.. If it's a cheap-Charlie phone trace the manufacturer and take things further

 

Problem is, those of us who have been here a long time tend become complacent (maybe blasé ) and tolerate standards that we would cringe at in our home countries

[Basil B]

On 15/11/2017 at 2:01 AM, mikebell said:

RIP.  How is such a thing possible?  Faulty wiring?

Most power sockets do not have an earth pin, but there again nor do phone chargers, but they should be double insulated.

 

 

The box in a box symbol indicated that it is double insulated, one factor of double insulation is often the plastic housing is the second insulation, so then the power out would only be single isolated, no wonder there are so many electrocutions and fires as so many of the cheep or fake branded ones are made in China...