Man electrocutes himself while charging phone in bath

[TSwizzle]

Incredibly the coroner thinks phones need to have a warning;

Richard Bull died when his iPhone charger made contact with the water while he was taking a bath in his home in Ealing, west London.
The 32-year-old is believed to have plugged the charger into an extension cord from the hallway then rested it on his chest while using the phone. He suffered from such severe burns to the chest, arm and hand that his wife, Tanya Bull, believed he had been attacked at first.

Assistant Coroner Dr Sean Cummings ruled the death an accident but will prepare an official prevention of future death report to send Apple about the case. He told West London Coroner’s Court: “These seem like innocuous devices but can be as dangerous as a hairdryer in a bathroom. “They should attach warnings. I intend to write a report later to the makers of the phone.”

Independent

So now that some fuckwit has managed to kill himself doing something incredibly stupid, phone manufacturers may be required to put a warning on their phone.

 

[Keith&Co.]

So now that some fuckwit has managed to kill himself doing something incredibly stupid, phone manufacturers may be required to put a warning on their phone.

Seems like they could just put a warning on the wall sockets. Just add: 'Everything that plugs into this'


We answer fault reports in our office. One day we got told that a piece of equipment needed a safety warning attached because someone decided to use his finger to keep two big pieces of metal from moving apart. He lost the tip of his finger. Our reply was 'no' to the safety warning. The equipment has been used in the fleet since 1979, and everyone else has always used the six-inch long, 1.5-inch wide steel ball lock pin to perform that function that's not only provided but connected by lanyard so it'll never be lost. It seems a no-brainer that the human finger is not the best choice for replacing the pin.

We were not allowed to call the user a stupid fuck who is lucky that's all he lost, nor insult the approval chain who submitted his request for a safety warning. Pity.

 

[DolphinDynasty]

Incredibly the coroner thinks phones need to have a warning;

Richard Bull died when his iPhone charger made contact with the water while he was taking a bath in his home in Ealing, west London.
The 32-year-old is believed to have plugged the charger into an extension cord from the hallway then rested it on his chest while using the phone. He suffered from such severe burns to the chest, arm and hand that his wife, Tanya Bull, believed he had been attacked at first.

Assistant Coroner Dr Sean Cummings ruled the death an accident but will prepare an official prevention of future death report to send Apple about the case. He told West London Coroner’s Court: “These seem like innocuous devices but can be as dangerous as a hairdryer in a bathroom. “They should attach warnings. I intend to write a report later to the makers of the phone.”

Independent

So now that some fuckwit has managed to kill himself doing something incredibly stupid, phone manufacturers may be required to put a warning on their phone.

This kind of stupidity is what lead lawmakers here to have to declare texting while driving a punishable offense cuz people were too stupid to connect the correlated deaths and manslaughter charges with the precursor that the driver had their eyes glued to a cell phone.

Now some other idiot manages to do the same thing that the first person who died by a hairdryer falling into a bath did and companies have to spend money on idiot warning labels. Watch out! Phones are dangerous if charged under water! Hur, dur.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

So now that some fuckwit has managed to kill himself doing something incredibly stupid, phone manufacturers may be required to put a warning on their phone.

Seems like they could just put a warning on the wall sockets. Just add: 'Everything that plugs into this'
View attachment 10317

We answer fault reports in our office. One day we got told that a piece of equipment needed a safety warning attached because someone decided to use his finger to keep two big pieces of metal from moving apart. He lost the tip of his finger. Our reply was 'no' to the safety warning. The equipment has been used in the fleet since 1979, and everyone else has always used the six-inch long, 1.5-inch wide steel ball lock pin to perform that function that's not only provided but connected by lanyard so it'll never be lost. It seems a no-brainer that the human finger is not the best choice for replacing the pin.

We were not allowed to call the user a stupid fuck who is lucky that's all he lost, nor insult the approval chain who submitted his request for a safety warning. Pity.

Sounds like there is some sanity in the military.

The number of warning signs I see on some pieces of machinery are nuts. There was one at my former employer's factory that made me want to make a sign for it every time I saw it. "Warning -- Too Many Warnings."

And this case I do not understand. I seriously doubt a phone charger can inflict the damage described, it certainly sounds like it was the mains voltage from the extension cord that did him in. What good would a warning on the phone do?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

I had a friend whose father owned a metal working shop that made office furniture. They had die cutting machines that cut sheet metal. It had all sorts of safety interlocks to prevent the machines from operating if a human hand was within the danger area where the stamper operated. The idiots in the factory systematically would disable these safety interlocks because they found them bothersome. Despite it being a firing offence to do so. My friend noted that many people in the factory were missing fingers.

 

[thebeave]

Incredibly the coroner thinks phones need to have a warning;

Richard Bull died when his iPhone charger made contact with the water while he was taking a bath in his home in Ealing, west London.
The 32-year-old is believed to have plugged the charger into an extension cord from the hallway then rested it on his chest while using the phone. He suffered from such severe burns to the chest, arm and hand that his wife, Tanya Bull, believed he had been attacked at first.

Assistant Coroner Dr Sean Cummings ruled the death an accident but will prepare an official prevention of future death report to send Apple about the case. He told West London Coroner’s Court: “These seem like innocuous devices but can be as dangerous as a hairdryer in a bathroom. “They should attach warnings. I intend to write a report later to the makers of the phone.”

Independent

So now that some fuckwit has managed to kill himself doing something incredibly stupid, phone manufacturers may be required to put a warning on their phone.

Sounds like you're blaming the victim!!

 

[Keith&Co.]

Sounds like there is some sanity in the military.

Well, we're contractors. But we needed the military to approve our response.
The first approval was a guy whose worked with the object in question for over 20 years.
He actually asked if they maybe didn't need to add the warning to the procedure. To protect sailors. Safety is important.

We took him into the lab and went through the decision process. And showed him the hole. And asked if he felt like putting his finger in it...
Suddenly it was a case of 'Well, when you put it that way..."

 

[DolphinDynasty]

Incredibly the coroner thinks phones need to have a warning;



Independent

So now that some fuckwit has managed to kill himself doing something incredibly stupid, phone manufacturers may be required to put a warning on their phone.

Sounds like you're blaming the victim!!

Only when the adult victim was doing something anyone passed the age of ten would see as stupid is this okay, though.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Boy, if you've reached the ripe old age of ten and haven't learned not to take corded electrical devices in to the bathtub, no amount of signs, alarms, and flashing lights are going to save you from yourself.

 

[DolphinDynasty]

Boy, if you've reached the ripe old age of ten and haven't learned not to take corded electrical devices in to the bathtub, no amount of signs, alarms, and flashing lights are going to save you from yourself.

True, but I padded the age limit on purpose for those adults who have managed to reach higher ages and still think something like running blindfolded through the house and tripping into injury is the only way to learn not to run blindfolded through the house, so then suffering is therefore a good teaching tool. I met somebody on here who told me that was how they got to realizing that blindfolding oneself and running without cautious movement first to learn where each object is taught him not to do that again. To me, he was an idiot, apparently did this when an adult, thinking there would not be any consequences to it. Whereas when I go walking without light of any kind through my whole house, I do it slow and with hands taking the place of my eyes, so I don't trip or fall because it may happen with my illnesses that I'd lose enough sight I'd have to rely on other ways to get around.

So yeah, I never assume an adult has the clarity and reasonable thought process to figure out what will cause harm and what won't before trying something new.

 

[barbos]

Well, resting it on his chest was certainly not smart, but lets be honest here, these things are pretty safe so most people stop paying attention.
I once had to wash notebook power supply. It looked very hermetic and I washed it very slightly. It then died, all the burning was contained inside though. So i would say it failed safely. But I think power supplies should be really watertight. Also they need to sell external power supplies separately from notebooks, so people reuse them.

 

[Juma]

Sounds like there is some sanity in the military.

Well, we're contractors. But we needed the military to approve our response.
The first approval was a guy whose worked with the object in question for over 20 years.
He actually asked if they maybe didn't need to add the warning to the procedure. To protect sailors. Safety is important.

We took him into the lab and went through the decision process. And showed him the hole. And asked if he felt like putting his finger in it...
Suddenly it was a case of 'Well, when you put it that way..."

Thats a major error on your side.
You have to realize that what is obvious to you is not obvious to everyone simply because thay dont have the same experience as you. You transfered your viewpoint to that person but others that use that equipment may not be so lucky.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Incredibly the coroner thinks phones need to have a warning;

Richard Bull died when his iPhone charger made contact with the water while he was taking a bath in his home in Ealing, west London.
The 32-year-old is believed to have plugged the charger into an extension cord from the hallway then rested it on his chest while using the phone. He suffered from such severe burns to the chest, arm and hand that his wife, Tanya Bull, believed he had been attacked at first.

Assistant Coroner Dr Sean Cummings ruled the death an accident but will prepare an official prevention of future death report to send Apple about the case. He told West London Coroner’s Court: “These seem like innocuous devices but can be as dangerous as a hairdryer in a bathroom. “They should attach warnings. I intend to write a report later to the makers of the phone.”

Independent

So now that some fuckwit has managed to kill himself doing something incredibly stupid, phone manufacturers may be required to put a warning on their phone.

No harm done. He made us all a favour by removing himself from the gene pool

 

[Keith&Co.]

You have to realize that what is obvious to you is not obvious to everyone simply because thay dont have the same experience as you.

But that's just it.
THe guy HAS the same experiences i do, he's worked with that piece of equipment for over 12 years, as a missile tech.. That's why we asked if he would put his finger in the hole rather than the pin EVERYONE (but two) has used for 37 years.
TheONLY thing that changed is that he's now in an administrative job and worries about different priorities. We just slapped him upside the head to reset the worry sprocket...

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I have an electric razor that can be used in the shower. The downside is that the razor can not be used when it is plugged in... because it can be used in the shower. The guy did something that wasn't particularly bright (presuming it wasn't suicide), and he is dead now because of it. Yes, plenty of warning labels out there, because many people aren't that bright. And the labels will likely save another not so bright person out there.

Kind of "ironic" how inquisitiveness and intelligence can get little children killed, where as the opposite gets the adult killed because they should have known better.

 

[TV and credit cards]

I have an electric razor that can be used in the shower. The downside is that the razor can not be used when it is plugged in... because it can be used in the shower. The guy did something that wasn't particularly bright (presuming it wasn't suicide), and he is dead now because of it. Yes, plenty of warning labels out there, because many people aren't that bright. And the labels will likely save another not so bright person out there.

Kind of "ironic" how inquisitiveness and intelligence can get little children killed, where as the opposite gets the adult killed because they should have known better.

It's so often the senior personnel that are the complacent ones. As an instructor I started incorporating a safety lecture to this effect in the classroom.

A system I worked on had these push/pull plastic CB knobs that were about a half inch diameter with a 1/16th inch lip to grab hold of with the tips of your fingers. They were super hard to pull and one often walked away shaking off the pain of having their fingernails jammed.
My first week working on this system, I watched Mr. Senior Technician break off one of these plastic knobs trying to pull it. Undeterred, he managed to reach in there with a scribe that had a right angle bend on one end.

I was standing three feet away with my arms crossed and my brow knit.

Yep. That's what I thought was going to happen.
Good training was had by all.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Well, we're contractors. But we needed the military to approve our response.
The first approval was a guy whose worked with the object in question for over 20 years.
He actually asked if they maybe didn't need to add the warning to the procedure. To protect sailors. Safety is important.

We took him into the lab and went through the decision process. And showed him the hole. And asked if he felt like putting his finger in it...
Suddenly it was a case of 'Well, when you put it that way..."

Thats a major error on your side.
You have to realize that what is obvious to you is not obvious to everyone simply because thay dont have the same experience as you. You transfered your viewpoint to that person but others that use that equipment may not be so lucky.

No--he showed the person what the actual situation was, he could see how stupid putting his finger in the hole would be. Anyone using the machine would have the same information.

 

[TSwizzle]

Well, resting it on his chest was certainly not smart, but lets be honest here, these things are pretty safe so most people stop paying attention.

I read another report that says he ran an extension cable from the hallway into the bathroom and the extension cable fell into the water.

- - - Updated - - -

No harm done. He made us all a favour by removing himself from the gene pool

I'm not sure his widow will take comfort in this.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I'm not sure his widow will take comfort in this.

Eh.
Choose your mate,
Choose your fate.

 

[beero1000]

I don't think it's possible to kill someone by electrocution with a normal 5V charger so the only possibility I can see is that it was mains voltage. I guess it could have been a shoddy non-isolated knockoff charger (dumb) or the extension cord (extraordinarily dumb).

Another possibility is that he really meant to kill himself and the wife faked the scene to save face.