Israeli Electrocuted To Death In Thailand

[TAWP]

Be safe out there.

[VocalNeal]

Sounds like the pool cleaner was running at night "A cable connected to a pool-cleaning machine fell into the water", which it probably has for years, hence the sign.

All this posturing about GFI and stuff is just that posturing. Normal TV stuff. I think in Aus. these people used to called "when wees"

It is a sad and tragic accident but to be honest I've done things much more stupid when I was young. Disregarding a "No Swimming" sign? I would probably have also been in the possession of two traffic cones and a police woman's hat!

Fortunately for me I have made it this far in life after also eating worms, playing with fireworks, driving without a seat belt, et al.

[wintermute]

Be safe out there.

That's pretty hilarious.

[Jingthing]

Thanks to haudegen for posting the more detailed facts about this case. It seems there is no mystery about it. Maybe some people will learn a lesson so this kind of thing doesn't happen as often.

[SabaiBKK]

Surprise, surprise - not reported by The Nation or the Bangkok Post - had to be picked up by a foreign news source.

This country disgusts me sometimes. These kinds of things happen all the time and never get reported on.

So sad. Just 22 years old. Hopefully the family can at least get an apology out of the owner, we know they'll never see any money.

if this country disgusts you so much , you may consider to go back to yours , where everything must be soo much more perfect ......

what is it with all the bitter farangs on thaivisa who live in a country they despise so much ? ... there is not a single thread on this forum where there is not at least one posting insulting Thais and/or Thailand...

[bkkjames]

Surprise, surprise - not reported by The Nation or the Bangkok Post - had to be picked up by a foreign news source.

This country disgusts me sometimes. These kinds of things happen all the time and never get reported on.

So sad. Just 22 years old. Hopefully the family can at least get an apology out of the owner, we know they'll never see any money.

if this country disgusts you so much , you may consider to go back to yours , where everything must be soo much more perfect ......

what is it with all the bitter farangs on thaivisa who live in a country they despise so much ? ... there is not a single thread on this forum where there is not at least one posting insulting Thais and/or Thailand...

Don't you just hate free speech?

[SabaiBKK]

Surprise, surprise - not reported by The Nation or the Bangkok Post - had to be picked up by a foreign news source.

This country disgusts me sometimes. These kinds of things happen all the time and never get reported on.

So sad. Just 22 years old. Hopefully the family can at least get an apology out of the owner, we know they'll never see any money.

if this country disgusts you so much , you may consider to go back to yours , where everything must be soo much more perfect ......

what is it with all the bitter farangs on thaivisa who live in a country they despise so much ? ... there is not a single thread on this forum where there is not at least one posting insulting Thais and/or Thailand...

Don't you just hate free speech?

i don't see what free speech has to do with an established fact that Thai visa's crowd is always bashing Thailand ... the country they chose to live in !!!

[Slaps]

Be safe out there.

Now that is Silly!

Drinking out of cans would have been a lot Safer

[Ulysses G.]

I've often seen the Thais at my gym using a portable electrical device on wheels that is used to clean cement right next to the swimmimg pool where people have to walk and it could fall in any time.

When I point it out to them, they give me the old "Mai Phen Rai", and I skip swimming for the day.

[bkkjames]

Surprise, surprise - not reported by The Nation or the Bangkok Post - had to be picked up by a foreign news source.

This country disgusts me sometimes. These kinds of things happen all the time and never get reported on.

So sad. Just 22 years old. Hopefully the family can at least get an apology out of the owner, we know they'll never see any money.

if this country disgusts you so much , you may consider to go back to yours , where everything must be soo much more perfect ......

what is it with all the bitter farangs on thaivisa who live in a country they despise so much ? ... there is not a single thread on this forum where there is not at least one posting insulting Thais and/or Thailand...

Don't you just hate free speech?

i don't see what free speech has to do with an established fact that Thai visa's crowd is always bashing Thailand ... the country they chose to live in !!!

Call it bashing if you want but when it comes to safety standards (or lack there of) in the country where we work, visit, spend our money in, I won't appologise for criticising those who put people at risk - Thai or farang.

[mythBuster]

I would argue that this was certainly not an accident. This can be described as expected. Nobody seems to do his or her job. If it was simply incompetence it would have been acceptable to some of us. When it becomes disinterest and greed it is a whole different ball game.

There are hundreds of mega accidents waiting to be happen, from the collapse to shopping centers that were illegally modified and from which the owners rather pay a petty daily fine than taking care of the problem, to city inspectors who are too busy chasing away poor street vendors who do not pay as much bribes as hoteliers and big business, to supervisors who do not supervise but have a second job.

I am sure they will find a scapegoat. the probably arrest a electricity worker who works for 10,000 baht or less a month. The big boys have nothing to fear.

[Grey11]

so sad. The fact of the sign IMO is irrelevant, as, if the cable was not secure then it could have fallen during daytime too.

RIP young man.

Very sad, agree about the cable, imagine it falling with a pool full of people.

Though Thailand is now intent on legislating all morality, especially following the U.S. and trying to ban smoking everywhere, one person was saved by the evil tobacco as he got out of the pool to smoke a cigarette. That saved his life.

[SuriyaJ]

Typical Thai disregard for anything resembling safety. Nobody has any foresight in this country when it comes to public or worker safety.

I don't think the whole 65 millions of us are responsible for it. Stop being bitter and keep your hatred to yourself. Grow up.

[Cybervlad]

Electricity flows from "live" to "ground" (neutral), it will follow the path of least resistance, or using Kirchoff's laws, the paths of least resistance.

...

Try it yourself, strip the insulation off the end of a twin cable, connect it to the mains supply and dip the bare ends into a basin of salt water, you will see violent activity at the cut end, green fumes and possibly a flame. Put a fish in the water and it will get excited by the activity, but not killed.

Once i was been in the water while the lighting struck to the center of the lake. I felt only weak strike, despite voltage of lighting is much higher than 220V. Its because electricity uses the shortest way (with least resistence).

So i don't understand how this sad death might happen. Unless the cable fell directly to the hearth area of poor boy...

In any case, human's life is priceless. RIP.

[baht&sold]

if this country disgusts you so much , you may consider to go back to yours , where everything must be soo much more perfect ......

what is it with all the bitter farangs on thaivisa who live in a country they despise so much ? ... there is not a single thread on this forum where there is not at least one posting insulting Thais and/or Thailand...

Don't you just hate free speech?

i don't see what free speech has to do with an established fact that Thai visa's crowd is always bashing Thailand ... the country they chose to live in !!!

Call it bashing if you want but when it comes to safety standards (or lack there of) in the country where we work, visit, spend our money in, I won't appologise for criticising those who put people at risk - Thai or farang.

Call it 'reality' if you want but most seem to expect cheap girls, grog, vice, price AND 'high standards' plus enforcement...

The majority Thailand bashers (who appear to be TV's core demographic) would probably no longer be willing, able, or wanting to afford 'to visit or spend money here', *IF* all the ills described were corrected, ala 'back home'...

Still, one sincerely hopes standards & enforcement WILL be raised (and they will, albeit slowly, eventually...)

But then, ironically, one by one, many core Thailand bashers will probably leave for the next cheapest under-developed country offering cheap girls, grog, vice and price (yet continue to demand high standards, safety, enforcement, etc, etc, etc...) zzzzzzzZzzzz....

Or, one assumes many are heading for safer, higher standard countries in this hemisphere like say, Singapore??

(not likely)

Meanwhile perhaps just try to enjoy (with care)

[Honolulu]

Thanks for the photo TAWP. I see you have discovered the best way to wash your slippers and drink beer at the same time.

[SuriyaJ]

Surprise, surprise - not reported by The Nation or the Bangkok Post - had to be picked up by a foreign news source.

This country disgusts me sometimes. These kinds of things happen all the time and never get reported on.

So sad. Just 22 years old. Hopefully the family can at least get an apology out of the owner, we know they'll never see any money.

if this country disgusts you so much , you may consider to go back to yours , where everything must be soo much more perfect ......

what is it with all the bitter farangs on thaivisa who live in a country they despise so much ? ... there is not a single thread on this forum where there is not at least one posting insulting Thais and/or Thailand...

Don't you just hate free speech?

These are just hate speech:

"This country disgusts me sometimes."

"Typical Thai disregard for anything resembling safety."

"their intellectual level is mostly very very LOW !!!"

If you think trolling around the webboard spewing things like this contributes to something, then I fear that you're beyond help. Criticisms are good, if contain no prejudice or hateful remarks, composed of meaningful text and if possible provided to the right people.

I'm wholeheartedly in support of free speech, something I long for especially these days, but on the other hand I resent warriors behind keyboard who exploit the anonymity of the net to talk <deleted> and claim it's free speech.

[Navalator]

This story lacks credibility. Why were these morons ignoring the warning sign? Why were they drunk and swimming? How come the hero who dived in was not electrocuted? Why do these hel_l raisers have to come to Thailand to party by getting drunk? No alcohol served in Israel? There is more to this than is being reported. The electric cable did not kill this person. Rotten judgment and irresponsibility did!

[bkkjames]

Surprise, surprise - not reported by The Nation or the Bangkok Post - had to be picked up by a foreign news source.

This country disgusts me sometimes. These kinds of things happen all the time and never get reported on.

So sad. Just 22 years old. Hopefully the family can at least get an apology out of the owner, we know they'll never see any money.

if this country disgusts you so much , you may consider to go back to yours , where everything must be soo much more perfect ......

what is it with all the bitter farangs on thaivisa who live in a country they despise so much ? ... there is not a single thread on this forum where there is not at least one posting insulting Thais and/or Thailand...

Don't you just hate free speech?

These are just hate speech:

"This country disgusts me sometimes."

"Typical Thai disregard for anything resembling safety."

"their intellectual level is mostly very very LOW !!!"

If you think trolling around the webboard spewing things like this contributes to something, then I fear that you're beyond help. Criticisms are good, if contain no prejudice or hateful remarks, composed of meaningful text and if possible provided to the right people.

I'm wholeheartedly in support of free speech, something I long for especially these days, but on the other hand I resent warriors behind keyboard who exploit the anonymity of the net to talk <deleted> and claim it's free speech.

mate call it / me what you want. The fact remains the same. I have a Thai family and I do give a hoot about exposing them to things that on the surface appear safe.

Don't take my word for it. Look at the newsclipping page on any day and you will find story after story of the same kind of thing. What you don't find is accountability or justice for the victims.

[cob302v8]

How the hel_l is a seemingly unterminated cable left live? Furthemore, it should have been connected through a Earth-leakage breaker, which would have tripped immediately upon contact with the water (earth) and the guy would not have been electrocuted. Whichever so-called electrician worked on this should be fuc_king shot!!

[SuriyaJ]

Don't you just hate free speech?

These are just hate speech:

"This country disgusts me sometimes."

"Typical Thai disregard for anything resembling safety."

"their intellectual level is mostly very very LOW !!!"

If you think trolling around the webboard spewing things like this contributes to something, then I fear that you're beyond help. Criticisms are good, if contain no prejudice or hateful remarks, composed of meaningful text and if possible provided to the right people.

I'm wholeheartedly in support of free speech, something I long for especially these days, but on the other hand I resent warriors behind keyboard who exploit the anonymity of the net to talk <deleted> and claim it's free speech.

mate call it / me what you want. The fact remains the same. I have a Thai family and I do give a hoot about exposing them to things that on the surface appear safe.

Don't take my word for it. Look at the newsclipping page on any day and you will find story after story of the same kind of thing. What you don't find is accountability or justice for the victims.

Why wouldn't I concur that we all as human beings deserve fair treatment, and it's not like I don't know there's only little justice in the legal system. But the point I'm trying to make is about members (presumably expats) here generalising the whole 65 millions of us for being 'disregard for safety', 'intellectually challenged'. I urge everyone to read rules number 7 and 8 on this this webboard:

7) Not to post slurs or degrading comments directed towards any group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

8) Not to post extremely negative views of Thailand or derogatory comments directed towards all Thais.

As long as trolls here could keep these simple rules then I'm all open to any argument!

Edited December 29, 2009 by SuriyaJ

[AskTheCPT]

I see live cables hanging all around Bangkok streets, luckily I'm not that tall. Another tourist meets their demise in the water in Thailand.

RIP

[bangkoksimon]

Sounds like he was killed by his own stupidity - if you jump in pool at 4am when you're drunk and there is a machine plugged in nearby to clean the pool that is clearly visable things like this happen I guess - still a very sad event but really not the resorts fault - death by misadventure seems to be what it is.

Edited December 29, 2009 by bangkoksimon

[Lite Beer]

Racist and Off Topic posts deleted.

[churchill]

A late-night swim ended in tragedy early Tuesday morning, when 22-year-old Netanya native Ariel Soriano was electrocuted in a pool on the Thai island of Ko Phangan. Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm, director of the Chabad House in Bangkok, said that Chabad would oversee the preparation and transferring of Soriano's body to Israel.

Soriano, who was described by family friend Dan Dobri as a "lovely kid, really responsible and full of life," was halfway through a one-month vacation in Thailand after being released from the army a year ago.

Soriano and his friends had come back from a party at 4 a.m. to Friendly Bungalows, the resort on Ko Phangan's Sunset Beach where they were staying.

Although the pool was closed and there was a sign on the grounds warning against swimming at night, Soriano and his friends entered it anyway.

A cable connected to a pool-cleaning machine fell into the water, and though Soriano's friends were also swimming, he was the only one electrocuted.

"His friends were in the pool with him, but he was closest to the wire," said Dobri, who had spoken earlier with Soriano's friends. "So Ariel took the brunt of the shock. And it took them about a minute to get out of the pool, because they had to disconnect the electricity; it didn't turn off automatically, so they couldn't touch the side of the pool."

Soriano's friends had to run into town to find a doctor.

According to one doctor at a Ko Phangan hospital, some resorts have had private ambulances stationed at large parties in case of emergencies, but since Soriano was electrocuted so late at night, he went without medical treatment for more than half an hour.

"We close the pool at night, so there weren't people around," said Bendi, a worker at Friendly Bungalows.

Dr. Kitti Sak, a doctor at a nearby clinic, was eventually brought to Soriano, whose face had turned purple from a lack of oxygen.

"I determined that he was brain-dead at the pool, since he wasn't responding to light," Sak said.

Soriano was then transported on a stretcher in a tuk-tuk - a motorized cart - to Sak's clinic.

"We used adrenaline for about 40 minutes," Sak said. "But there was nothing we could do. We pronounced him dead at that point."

Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm, director of the Chabad House in Bangkok, said that a Chabad undertaker would oversee the preparation and transferring of Soriano's body to Israel.

Dobri said that the Foreign Ministry hoped to have Soriano's body back in Israel by Wednesday morning.

Soriano's friends, who had planned to stay in Thailand for two more weeks, were due to arrive in Israel on Tuesday morning.

Ko Phangan is a popular destination for Israelis vacationing after the army. The area is best known for its monthly Full Moon parties, when 10,000 to 20,000 backpackers converge on the beaches in Thailand's southern gulf.

http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=16856

[Me&MrsJones]

What happened to this poor Israeli man is a sad, preventable occurance and all too common in this country....as if you needed telling! I would like to offer my most sincere condolences to the his family.

I'm a health & safety lawyer, qualified in UK but working over here in the Land of Accidents. I have been here for 8 years already.

Although accidents can be prevented (as far as is reasonably possible) in most cases there are many reasons why they aren't. 1. Attitude is the main reason: They don't care about themselves and therefore they dont care about other people as a direct result. Their lack of care and their actions do affect others working in close proximity.

2. Lack of education: Simply put, the locals are not sufficiently educated of the dangers here and do not have safe systems in place to spot the risks, which in turn would eliminate the hazards.

3. Incompetence: Unqualified, inexperienced, too old, too young. These are the common factors affecting accident rates in most countries, not just Thailand.

When you have these 3 elements all working against you, the likelihood of a dangerous occurance, near miss or accident happening increase significantly.

It's like a "see-saw" on a playground: You put points 1, 2 and 3 on one side and watch the effect is has on the opposite end of the see-saw. It rises.

Add to this some more factors;

4. Being over worked: And therefore forced to cut corners to reach deadlines (working outside of the designated safe system of work).

5. Financial constraints: This leads to cutting corners and thus routine maintenance, review of safety policies and procedures are "forgotten".

6. Reading: In the tourism sector, many Thai's can't read or write. So they dont see the importance of putting a clear warning in a prominent place - coz they assume that nobody is going to/can actually read it anyway. If the sign is bilingual it is usually full of erros and hardly legible.

The bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, is that this country is LIGHT YEARS BEHIND in the general attitude to health and safety. I've even worked with a Thai health & safety advisor at a highly flammable location (name has to remain confidential) and he was the most hazardous and accident prone guy you could meet! No kiddin! I'm talking about basic stuff like turning on his F*cking mobile phone is a confined space which has highly flammable gases! What a f*uking c*nt! I wanted to knock the prick out!

Anyway, back to the main point.

Water and electricity do not mix. This fatal "accident" should really be termed as "manslaughter" due to negligence of the highest order. I bet their was no safety policy in place, no organisational structure, nobody to check the place to spot hazards, no clear lines of communication between staff and management to report problems, no way to implement new safety measures, no way to measure if the safety systems and policies are performing....and no bloody review of the safety policies.

Last but by no means least, i bet you a pound-to-a-penny, there is no pulic liability insurance to compensate the family.

Unavoidable...! Unacceptable! Ignorance is no defence!

And these are the reasons i am getting the fuc_k out of dodge in April!

Ohh...i need a drink after all this typing. I think i'll go out and get wasted, then after 10 pints i'll just drive home and mow a few bus queues down....

Happy Christmas......

[caf]

Surprise, surprise - not reported by The Nation or the Bangkok Post - had to be picked up by a foreign news source.

This country disgusts me sometimes. These kinds of things happen all the time and never get reported on.

So sad. Just 22 years old. Hopefully the family can at least get an apology out of the owner, we know they'll never see any money.

if this country disgusts you so much , you may consider to go back to yours , where everything must be soo much more perfect ......

what is it with all the bitter farangs on thaivisa who live in a country they despise so much ? ... there is not a single thread on this forum where there is not at least one posting insulting Thais and/or Thailand...

Don't you just hate free speech?

These are just hate speech:

"This country disgusts me sometimes."

"Typical Thai disregard for anything resembling safety."

"their intellectual level is mostly very very LOW !!!"

If you think trolling around the webboard spewing things like this contributes to something, then I fear that you're beyond help. Criticisms are good, if contain no prejudice or hateful remarks, composed of meaningful text and if possible provided to the right people.

I'm wholeheartedly in support of free speech, something I long for especially these days, but on the other hand I resent warriors behind keyboard who exploit the anonymity of the net to talk <deleted> and claim it's free speech.

I completly agree but TV has the biggest membership of all thai forums and it is inevitable that you get some nonsense posts such as the one you replied to. Just ignore it. The mods try to do a good job but they can't be everywhere. There is always the report button but I suspect if everyone used it there would be overload.

[harrycallahan]

"His friends were in the pool with him, but he was closest to the wire," said Dobri, who had spoken earlier with Soriano's friends. "So Ariel took the brunt of the shock. And it took them about a minute to get out of the pool, because they had to disconnect the electricity; it didn't turn off automatically, so they couldn't touch the side of the pool."

As others have I'm wondering how he copped the force of the current. Maybe if he was near it and touching something else which made him the path of least resistance, say if he was near the edge and holding on to a metal railing, maybe that would do it. Current has to flow through you for you to experience a shock, it can't just be in your vicinity.

No mention of his friends performing immediate CPR, compulsory military service didn't equip them for that?

[newtronbom]

I feel very sorry for any young person, that finds death, before having a chance to live life. Doesn't matter where he comes from does it? Or in the end what caused it. He is gone and that can't be changed. My sympathy goes to his family and friends. What I really don't understand about posts like this, is that how it is, that with so few facts in hand, these posts all turn into a shit slinging match! A young guy has died and so many here turn a sad post into an ugly debate. What is wrong with this picture? Don't any of you care for his family's feelings? SuriyaJ does make a good point, that if so many posters on this forum(if they are even in T/L) seem to hate this country so much, they should get the heck away to another country. That does not mean, that there aren't poor safety standards to be found in many places, cause there are. That does not mean either, as SuriyaJ pointed out, that 65 million Thais are responsible, or that there is a general lack of intelligence. I hear many Thai people complain about the very same issues! Obviously they DO CARE! It's not their fault, if you can't speak Thai and so don't understand what they are saying! What these posters tend to forget, is that the countries they compare Thailand to, their so called perfect worlds, have been developing under a totally different culture for a hundred years or more, where as here, they have pretty much gone from a rural economy, to what we have today, in just 20 years! I hate to think where my country would be, if we had gone from the time of the Maoris, to what we have today in just 20 years! People should lighten up a lot on this forum, and learn not to turn a very sad post, for whatever reason, into a hate debate. I love Thailand, that's why I live here. Some good constructive criticism here, without the vitriol, would do far more good. I think we all know, that there are some things that need changing or improving here, but not for the benefit of the posters on T/V, good or bad, but for the benefit of all who choose to live here in Thailand. I wish a few would think before they post in future. Talk about insensitive!!

Edited December 29, 2009 by newtronbom

[nevets]

I am an electrician of 42 years in the UK ,if the Thai government did any electrical regulations the same as the UK there would not be so many deaths from electrocution . Accidents happen but if work done properly disconnection time is point 4 of a second and no one is killed , in fact you will not feel anything it has tripped that quick. I know Thailand is very bad i have lived here for 8 years with my wife and the things they do are criminal. RIP, young man and sorry for your loss to his family.