Man dies charging phone in the bath ...

[Avacee]

Possible Darwin Award inc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39307418

The BBC title is a bit clickbaity since it appears it wasn't the iPhone charger at fault as he'd rested an extension lead on his chest with the charger plugged into it and the charger/extension lead came into contact with the bath water.
Tragic story but imho, it shows a stunning level of ignorance about basic electricity which I'd assume his age would have.

[Red Squirrel]

Interesting would not think a 5vdc source would cause death, wonder if this only applies to cheap Chinese adapters that have no isolation.   

Either way messing around with stuff plugged in the wall while in a bath is not very bright.  Definitely not 100w.. well he was for a little while I guess.

[IanB]

Interesting would not think a 5vdc source would cause death, wonder if this only applies to cheap Chinese adapters that have no isolation.

According to the story the man rested a 240 V mains extension cable on his chest and then submerged it in the water. Nothing close to 5 V DC.

(It should be noted that he would have had to use a long extension cable to do this as UK electrical regulations do not permit mains sockets anywhere near a bathtub.)

[james_s]

That definitely qualifies for a Darwin award.

I did find that odd when I visited the UK, no electrical outlets or switches anywhere in bathrooms, the only thing they did have was an isolated 110V shaver socket. Here in the US I don't think I've ever seen a bathroom that didn't have an outlet in it and most of the time the light switch is inside the bathroom too. Houses from the 1950s often have the bathroom light switch outside the door, something that amused me when I was about 4 years old turning the light off while someone was in there.

[Red Squirrel]

Interesting would not think a 5vdc source would cause death, wonder if this only applies to cheap Chinese adapters that have no isolation.

According to the story the man rested a 240 V mains extension cable on his chest and then submerged it in the water. Nothing close to 5 V DC.

(It should be noted that he would have had to use a long extension cable to do this as UK electrical regulations do not permit mains sockets anywhere near a bathtub.)

Oh yikes, I thought they meant the phone charger cable not the 240v one.  Yeah that would pack a nice punch. 

[SingedFingers]

I'm going out in style here as I've had a few drinks, but what a fucking moron. It's really hard to kill yourself in the bathroom with electricity here. I mean you have to really try. This guy did the trying in style. He purposely circumvented the safety measures. That's STUPID.

This pisses me off:

"Apple did not respond to requests for a comment."

Good job Apple. It's not your fault your user was an idiot. Does Ikea have to comment when someone stabs a VARDAGAN though someone? Nope.

A coroner ruled his death was accidental and plans to send a report to Apple about taking action to prevent future deaths.

File it in the trash can. Seriously.  Also please record the difference between ACCIDENT and STUPID. A loosely coupled chain of causality between several things is an accident.  Someone taking direct illogical action that threatens themselves is STUPID.

 

[CatalinaWOW]

Dumber than dirt, but also unlucky.  How did the path from the mains through him and the tub come to be better than the path through the wires themselves?  Unless he was two levels stupid and had modified the mains cable in some way.

[SingedFingers]

Shallow bath

[Monkeh]

Dumber than dirt, but also unlucky.  How did the path from the mains through him and the tub come to be better than the path through the wires themselves?  Unless he was two levels stupid and had modified the mains cable in some way.

It doesn't have to be easier, it just has to be present.

[RGB255_0_0]

Interesting would not think a 5vdc source would cause death, wonder if this only applies to cheap Chinese adapters that have no isolation.

According to the story the man rested a 240 V mains extension cable on his chest and then submerged it in the water. Nothing close to 5 V DC.

(It should be noted that he would have had to use a long extension cable to do this as UK electrical regulations do not permit mains sockets anywhere near a bathtub.)

Funnily enough, my bathroom is about 3.5m x 3.5m and there is a plug socket in the hallway <1m from the door to the bathroom. I can plug in my Macbook charger in the hallway and sit the laptop on a chair comfortably. Also, there are 120/240v supplies in bathrooms for shavers, but they should be isolated, as in most of the world.

Dumber than dirt, but also unlucky.  How did the path from the mains through him and the tub come to be better than the path through the wires themselves?  Unless he was two levels stupid and had modified the mains cable in some way.

Creates a voltage gradient. Electroboom has a video on this. And current doesn't take only the path of least resistance.

I'd like to know whether his bathplug was grounded though but even then he may not have had RCD protection.

[james_s]

It's probably impossible to tell precisely what happened, the guy is dead so you can't ask him, and likely nobody was watching him bathe to witness the accident. He could have contacted a conductor with his hand while his lower half was immersed in the bath. Not a very good idea at any rate. This sort of accident was a lot more common back in the days of "hot chassis" AC/DC radios which was long before the GFCI/RCD existed.

[hagster]

As is always the case, there is only ONE relivent fact in this case and the reporters seem to fail every time to clearly communicating this fact.

I.e. was it the phone or the extension/charger that was on his chest?

[RGB255_0_0]

As is always the case, there is only ONE relivent fact in this case and the reporters seem to fail every time to clearly communicating this fact.

I.e. was it the phone or the extension/charger that was on his chest?

Article writers may not know. So it could have been a dodgy, unsafe charger that had a live output referenced to the mains (no isolation/capacitive dropper/or just plain unsafe) or his charger cable was so short he rested an extension too close to the bath (or even rested it on his chest, which would corroborate the burns he sustained).

Water + directly to chest/heart + ignorance = Darwin award (unless he has kids then you have to feel sorry for them).

[Red Squirrel]

I like how they're trying to blame Apple for this.  This could have happened without the phone even being present. The phone just happened to be the device he wanted to charge but it could have been anything.

[IanB]

Dumber than dirt, but also unlucky.  How did the path from the mains through him and the tub come to be better than the path through the wires themselves?  Unless he was two levels stupid and had modified the mains cable in some way.

If you have metal bath taps and copper piping then the bath taps are grounded. All you have to do is rest your toes on the faucet and you are dead in the water...

[Neganur]

I didn't read the article properly but I wouldn't rule out suicide too quickly. Often times the most impossible accidents happen on purpose.

[VK3DRB]

Was it his fault? Or maybe the fault of the English education system for not educating him on basic fundamentals of electrical safety?

We are all idiots. For example, when I was 19, I had one dim headlight on my car. I removed it, smashed it with a rock, went and bought another one, installed it, and it was still dim. The fault was a poor earth connection . But I learnt from my mistake .

There is an old saying "fools never learn". Unfortunately with this bloke being electrocuted, he had no second chance. I think a mandatory primary school level education on basic electrical safety could have prevented his death.

I have known a number peer electronics engineers who have never received basic consumer education. They make the most stupid financial decisions. One being spending more than they earn on non-appreciating, non-essential assets over a long period of time, slowly going broke.

[james_s]

I have known a number peer electronics engineers who have never received basic consumer education. They make the most stupid financial decisions. One being spending more than they earn on non-appreciating, non-essential assets over a long period of time, slowly going broke.

Probably the same problem we have over here. Throughout my education I don't remember one single class that more than touched on basic financial responsibility, credit, compounding interest, etc. When so many parents exhibit such poor financial behavior it's no wonder their kids make so many mistakes. Growing up without a lot of money wasn't always pleasant but I credit the experience with making me far more financially sensible than the average person. I've known so many people who make substantially more than I do yet are always broke.

[RGB255_0_0]

Was it his fault? Or maybe the fault of the English education system for not educating him on basic fundamentals of electrical safety?

I can't speak for his schooling. But I'm 33 and when I was at school we learnt a reasonable amount. Were even taught about voltage gradients such as having to keep your feet together insofar as if there was a felled overhead power line.

You cannot educate against ignorance, though! If he had the new iPhone 7, he may have thought that the phone is waterproof so he couldn't get shocked. You never know what goes through some people's minds.

The coroner isn't blaming Apple per se: I think the idea is to get Apple to make clearer electrical dangers so this, ideally, never happens again.

[Ian.M]

It had to have been in some s--tty older property as all newer properties and rentals (and any older property where the insurance company has requested an electrical survey)  will have had their consumer units replaced to provide RCD protection on all 'wet area' circuits.  I'm not saying 30mA RCD protection would have been certain to save him but it certainly would have been a prettier corpse!   

Given the likely age of the property it could well have been an enamelled cast iron bath, with a metal waste pipe.

Was it his fault? Or maybe the fault of the English education system for not educating him on basic fundamentals of electrical safety?

Educated in the UK in the '90s - 'nuff said!

[Ampera]

Lol. My US bathroom has a power outlet (They all do, every single on in the house) and they are all GFI sockets. So theoretically, if I were to plug something in and throw it into the tub, it would trip and turn off before it could kill me (Not gonna try that out)

They do sell some appliances here with GFIs on the chord or plug somewhere like hair driers and air conditioners.

But I believe in the notion that we should remove safety features so long as it's obvious to a person with reasonable common sense that there is a danger there, and let the people stupid enough to die from that shit get out of the genepool. Maybe that's a bit harsh.....

But seriously, it's in the same camp of the people who put their cat in the microwave and vote for Donald Trump burn themselves on hot food they just cooked.

[suicidaleggroll]

I think the idea is to get Apple to make clearer electrical dangers so this, ideally, never happens again.

It's not Apple's fault at all, nor their documentation.  The guy plugged a mains extension cord into an outlet far away from the bathroom, brought it into the tub, and put the end of the extension cord on his chest while taking a bath.  It doesn't matter what he plugged into it.  Nothing Apple could have said would have prevented this guy from Darwining himself out of existence, that's just next-level stupid.

[SingedFingers]

Indeed. We end up with crap like this then:



 

[julian1]

I wonder if it could have beeen a low-voltage extension wire to the phone that was on his chest?

But the charger type was a cheap (Chinese) cap-dropper circuit with weird potentials to ground? And with no RCD device on the power-board to kill the circuit.

This guy explains cap-droppers,

A low voltage between two points in a circuit, DOES NOT mean that there is not a high voltage between one of those points and earth ground(you). The AC voltage across an LED may be a few volts while the AC voltage between either leg of that same LED and you could be dangerously high.

https://bobparadiso.com/2015/02/03/capacitive-dropper/

[grumpydoc]

Indeed. We end up with crap like this then:



 

One would hope that the dumbest of dum f***'s would realise that a bag of peanuts contained peanuts.

Mind you I did once meet a young woman with a peanut allergy who had to be treated for anaphylaxis having eaten chicken in a satay sauce, knowing that the sauce contained peanuts because she "wanted to try something different" and "thought that she would be OK". 

But I digress.

The bottom paragraph is not as daft as it looks. Peanuts are not, botanically speaking, nuts at all. They are legumes (the clue's in the "pea" bit).

Thus it is possible to be allergic to peanuts but not true nuts and vice versa. However peanuts are often handled on production lines which also process nut products and can get contaminated by nut dust - hence the warning that people with nut or sesame allergies (as well as those with peanut allergies) should not consume the product.