Israeli Electrocuted To Death In Thailand

[animatic]

When fixing tube amps or TV's there is the "One Hand Rule".

You can get shocked by high voltage dc from your one hand to your feet and not be happy

but still live, right hand being farther from your heart musckes a little bit.

But if it passes from your hand to your other hand, then it also traverses your heart, and around it,

and so can stop it via overload. It can likely restart shortly after the shock of the overload wears off,

probably with some damage, but if you are in water, you can likely drown before this happens.

For instance if he had a foot on the pool floor and a left hand on the side, and the cable fell,

he has two routes to ground and both could pass through or by his heart,

and he is temporarily paralyzed and drowns, the electrocution being the primary cause.

Playing with the pool robot should not be a death sentence either. So sad in general.

[siamiam]

I am under the impression that if you are in the water, and not touching the sides or bottom of the pool, and thus not providing a fast route to earth (a bridge with a large potential difference end to end), that you would not be electrocuted anyway. The same way that birds can happily sit on high powered cables is that they are not creating a bridge for the electricity to run through (and thus boiling the poor little bird's body in the process). People get electrocuted in baths (and showers) because they are touching the bottom and sides of the bath. May be this was why only one person died while others in the pool were unhurt - and maybe why Billy the Fish survived diving in.

I believe that you can still be electrocuted in a body of water, where you are not touching the sides or bottom, (earth), if your body forms a part of the electrical 'path to ground'. In the case of the unfortunate Israeli man, his body may have come in contact with the cable that "fell" into the pool, (or in very close proximity to it), making his body a part of the 'electrical circuit', or 'path to ground'. If his body had come into contact with the cable, he could have become a part of the electrical ciruit weather he was touching the sides/bottom of the pool or not. The brave person that dove in to the rescue, (and others who may have been in the water at the time), may have escaped injury either because the electricity was no longer present, or because he/they did not come into contact with the cable, (and thus did not become part of the electrical path to ground).

Edited December 31, 2009 by siamiam

[shiatsuman]

RIP

A stark reminder that we are all on our own and responsible for ourselves here in the jungle.

sad though this case is, the most likely explanation for a live power line getting into the pool is an electrical appliance conected to the party falling into the pool. As usual in the blame game, the Thai management not the drunken falang party goers have have been fingerd.... I don´t think so in this case .

[witsawakorn]

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.

Obviously the story didn't meet the Post's or Nation's criteria for publication. There are probably a number of accidental deaths in Thailand everyday which aren't reported.It is obviously of more interest to an Israel based news organisation. To be fair to the the Nation they did report the unknown western guy jumping off the 38th floor of a high rise building in Sathorn a few weeks back http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/rea...keyword=q+house

I am surprised that story didn't make it into TV. Before expecting an apology from the owner you should probably get some more facts together. Maybe the party peoples sound system fell into the pool!

[bina]

it made it to our news papers for one day only and then was overtaken by 'corruption', 'woman murdered for the honour of the family' and other gems... same same everywhere.

bina

israel

[Tanaka]

Whether accident, carelessness or manslaughter by his drunk friends. Without the real facts nobody should come to quick conclusions.

One thing seems to be sure: They partied in a pool at 4 am, it was forbidden, now they cry!

I don't say this boy deserved death, but he played with fire and got burnt.

Why nobody feels for the the innocent fellow resort guests which been annoyed by these drunken rowdies for hours??

Are you really this stupid or is it just ignorance?

[doglover]

Very sad incident to hear about. No surprise about a lack of planning and safety with routeing the electrical cable. Maybe the man with the good heart to help the victim stuck his toe in the water first to check if it was still too 'hot'. Sounds like he has used up too lives that night though. Once saved by going for a cigarette of all things and twice by "quickly" diving back into the pool and being fortunate enough the circuit had tripped already.

Food for thought... Imagine if the hero had given up smoking a couple months back. It would have killed him. Amazing. Maybe a good message to just enjoy life, even our vices if they bring us pleasure, as we never know when our time is up....... On the other hand if a couple forum members take up the bottle or the needle again it will probably create some bad Karma for me.

[Martian]

Don't get me wrong, I really feel for this boys family, as it must be terrible for them to loose their son.

It might be moronic to you, but I still stand for my opinion that self inflicted harm should be treated as self inflicted.

 I just find it not ok that people (in this case the resort owner) will be blamed automatically for the wrong doing of the victim itself, especially when the facts are not yet clear.  

They were in the pool presumably with management approval, at least tacit approval. Otherwise how could they even be in the pool at that hour? Their drunkenness may or may not be relevant. That would depend on exactly what happened. That the electrocution occurred on private property in a public area ensures the owner is responsible, without question. If the revelers were behaving in an unsafe manner then the management had the duty to stop the dangerous behavior and maintain their safety. This was not done, clearly, as there was a death involved. This is negligence on the part of the management. I can't see any way in which the management can escape culpability, though I doubt that anything will be done.

RIP to the young man who lost his life.

LOL...Lawyer talk for no one should have to have personal accountability, it's always someone else's fault.. This is exactly what is wrong with our world and making it the way it is, instead of the way it could be.

I'm in the camp that: A) They weren't supposed to be there and There is more to the story than what is being told that would resolve the issue of direct responsibility.

Until the whole story comes out, I will share no opinion as to fault or responsibility as it is impossible to arrive at such.

Regards

[Fishbucket]

This sort of thing concerns me about my pool, with the inside lights.

Better to get a leakage trip, i think they have them in the shops.

When you are wet your body resistence goes very low so more current goes through you .