Teen got electrocuted and died for using her phone in the shower while charging it...

[GirvanaWantsBinnieBalls]

i've brought my phone in the shower , but if im going to touch it i will wipe my hands to the towel and do what ever i would do. Unfortunately im not stupid enough to get my phone , charge it up and play with it while water is thrown at me , my hands, and my damn phone. Who to know that devices attracting electricity and having water around them can take you to meet steve jobs. Maybe that was his plan after all.... 

[ProjectBox153]

5 minutes ago, TOMPPIX said:

"Youtube"

I just had to.

[Coaxialgamer]

2 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

I have hair dryers in the bathroom too, but I'm not going to use it while in the shower when the water is turned on. It's common sense, where this girl doesn't have and her parents for not teaching it to her.

it actually isn't specified whether or not the girl was actively showering when the accident happened . 

If it got to a point where she brought an extension into the shower , then that is actually extremely stupid on her part .

But i can actually imagine quite a few scenarios where this could have happened ( with the danger being less obvious or even unlikely ), without requiring a live outlet in the shower itself.  5V can't kill you , and neither can 20V . 

[AlwaysFSX]

2 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

come on , that's completely different . You can't reasonably be suggesting that a phone and a toaster use anywhere near the same amount of power .

It isn't clear from the article if he was actually charging the phone while actively showering .  Knowing the typical amount of power produced by phone chargers , it's unlikely the 5-20V electricity from the charger itself killed her . 

If i had to guess  i'd say, the charging block itself ( which would have been outside the shower  , because it would need to be plugged into an outlet )  likely shorted in some way that the 120V bypassed into the charging cord . that could have been caused by a crappy charger , a splash of water or any other amount of things . Many people use haird dryers after a shower , and high humidity can produce these results . It's totally possible she just chose to charge her phone after showering .

Here's the thing, we get taught in school that this kind of stuff should be avoided. This is willing negligence. Everyone knows you shouldn't use any electronic devices in a soaking wet environment because you can and will get injured or die.

 

There is no excuse for this. NONE. Anything can short out and then you're fucked. There's no reason to be so apologetic on this case, it's pretty apparent what happened.

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

it actually isn't specified whether or not the girl was actively showering when the accident happened . 

If it got to a point where she brought an extension into the shower , then that is actually extremely stupid on her part .

But i can actually imagine quite a few scenarios where this could have happened ( with the danger being less obvious or even unlikely ), without requiring a live outlet in the shower itself.  5V can't kill you , and neither can 20V . 

Why are you even trying to protect the victim?

[mynameisjuan]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

  5V can't kill you , and neither can 20V . 

Well, voltage cant kill. Just needed to get the couple of milliamps across your heart. Voltage required to do that is quite high though. 9v is barely enough to get a 9v battery to tickle across your tongue at less than an inch apart let alone cross the body. Something allowed the full 120v to go across the charging cable. Which is next to impossible because the way a transformer works wouldnt allow it.

[Mr.Dingle]

47 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

 

2. A fast charger must have been used. Your typical charger is 5v 1A, which will hurt a lot but is unlikely to kill you, even when wet.

 

 

The charger itself cannot kill a person , no matter how wet or not you are . Just because it is rated at 1A max. current doesnt mean it can push 1A thru anything thats connected . 

 

Most likely cause of death would be that the actual outlet got splashed with water . 

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, AlwaysFSX said:

Here's the thing, we get taught in school that this kind of stuff should be avoided. This is willing negligence. Everyone knows you shouldn't use any electronic devices in a soaking wet environment because you can and will get injured or die.

 

There is no excuse for this. NONE. Anything can short out and then you're fucked. There's no reason to be so apologetic on this case, it's pretty apparent what happened.

the girl was 14 , give her a break . 

5V DC can't kill you and neither can 20V . Sure , it wasn't the smartest idea , but she didn't deserve to die for it . 

It's extremely likely something else went wrong . As said before , i can imagine any number of scenarios where this could have happened that don't require having a live outlet in the shower . It was a household accident .

3 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Why are you even trying to protect the victim?

Because she was 14 . A kid . And people here are yelling natural selection for something that likely was just a regular household accident . It's disgusting . 

[laminutederire]

What's the point of voice command when humanity goes down like that?

[Brainless906]

Just now, ColonelThunder said:

The charger itself cannot kill a person , no matter how wet or not you are . Just because it is rated at 1A max. current doesnt mean it can push 1A thru anything thats connected . 

 

Most likely cause of death would be that the actual outlet got splashed with water . 

Plugging the charger into the wall with wet hands would do the job in this case. Explains the burns on the dominant hand and covers the requirement of power needed to be deadly.

Get out shower
Plug wallwart into wall with wet hands
RIP

[Coaxialgamer]

1 minute ago, mynameisjuan said:

Well, voltage cant kill. Just needed to get the couple of milliamps across your heart. Voltage required to do that is quite high though. 9v is barely enough to get a 9v battery to tickle across your tongue at less than an inch apart let alone cross the body. Something allowed the full 120v to go across the charging cable. Which is next to impossible because the way a transformer works wouldnt allow it.

if water somehow got into the charging block , it's possible it simply got shorted . 

A splash of water , high humidty could have caused it . It also depends on the charger used in the first place.

[RagnarokDel]

45 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

I dont understand how this makes sense. The transformer is only putting out 5 volts. Period. 5 volts is not enough to over come resistance to penetrate skin. Even it the water made it down the cable to the power brick and managed to get into the outlet it would of most likely shorted in the outlet and kicked the breaker. Also in a shower the water is flowing around you and will most likely go around your body instead of through your heart. It just doesnt seem right.

https://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616/safety/fatal_current.html

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, Brainless906 said:

Plugging the charger into the wall with wet hands would do the job in this case. Explains the burns on the dominant hand and covers the requirement of power needed to be deadly.

Get out shower
Plug wallwart into wall with wet hands
RIP

still, all oulets up to code are grounded.

[Drak3]

Stupid is, as stupid does.

[Brainless906]

4 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

still, all oulets up to code are grounded.

This is true but only a requirement for new homes.

I've lived in more than my fair share of houses with ungrounded outlets that wouldnt pass inspection but havent been changed as having inspections done after initial green light on building completion when it was not a requirement.

The requirement for grounded outlets wasnt introduced until the late 60s early 70s and there are planty of houses in the US older than that.

Houses with out dated electrical are quite commonplace in the US of A sadly

[Mr.Dingle]

3 minutes ago, Brainless906 said:

Plugging the charger into the wall with wet hands would do the job in this case. Explains the burns on the dominant hand and covers the requirement of power needed to be deadly.

Get out shower
Plug wallwart into wall with wet hands
RIP

Exactly . 

 

I dont think there is anything more to say but RIP . 

[laminutederire]

3 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

 It was a household accident .

However sad that may be, it shows a real problem in our society. It shouldn't be a household accident because there are no good reason for a 14 years old to use her phone in the shower. Nothing would be critical in her life to justify this, therefore she just could have simply waited to finish her shower and dry up before wanting to use her phone. The world has became so impatient it's causing stupid unfortunate death that could have been avoided so simply.

[goodtofufriday]

10 minutes ago, ColonelThunder said:

The charger itself cannot kill a person , no matter how wet or not you are . Just because it is rated at 1A max. current doesnt mean it can push 1A thru anything thats connected . 

 

Most likely cause of death would be that the actual outlet got splashed with water . 

100ma can kill you. And of youre wet with your body not touching any sort of "ground", then youre guaranteed dead.

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, laminutederire said:

However sad that may be, it shows a real problem in our society. It shouldn't be a household accident because there are no good reason for a 14 years old to use her phone in the shower. Nothing would be critical in her life to justify this, therefore she just could have simply waited to finish her shower and dry up before wanting to use her phone. The world has became so impatient it's causing stupid unfortunate death that could have been avoided so simply.

totally agree on that point . even for the phone's sake , it's a bad idea to keep in a wet environment  

[AshleyAshes]

43 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

I don't know about the building codes of the states of Texas, but even if did, the house could have been built before the building code about it was in place, or the bathroom was renovated without getting building permits (so the state could not send someone to validate everything). And the renovations could have been done by a previous owner of the home, so the current ones thinks that all are good.

 

Also, she might have simply acquired a really long cable.

I figure this is it.  The house was old enough to be grandfathered in and the homeowners didn't make any changes since they weren't required to by law.  I'm unsure if in Texas a renovation would require an update to the outlets or not and you don't know if it was renovated.  But in short, there are plenty of homes in the world that have outlets without GFCIs in their kitchens and bathrooms even if a new construction would not allow that.

 

Also, everyone is puzzled by this shower business.  I googled and every other article puts her as having a bath, not a shower.

 

We also don't know if, say, her charger didn't have a long enough cable and if she used an extension cord or something.  Oh, wait, I literally just saw this while typing:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/12/texas-teen-was-electrocuted-by-her-cellphone-while-taking-a-bath-her-family-says/?utm_term=.a7249ed7a45f

 

Quote

Lovington police confirmed that a cellphone, a charging cord and an extension cord were found by the bathtub

Extension cord.  Yeah if the extension cord fell into the water and there was no GFCI, that's pretty much the end of you.

[AlwaysFSX]

5 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

the girl was 14 , give her a break . 

5V DC can't kill you and neither can 20V . Sure , it wasn't the smartest idea , but she didn't deserve to die for it . 

It's extremely likely something else went wrong . As said before , i can imagine any number of scenarios where this could have happened that don't require having a live outlet in the shower . It was a household accident .

14 is an excuse? Okay then.

[AshleyAshes]

If anyone has their own safety concerns in a home without a GFCI outlet, you can actually GET GFCIs that will plug into a standard outlet.  That way you can get that level of safety without doing any electrical work:

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Yellow-Jacket-2762-Adapter-1-Outlet/dp/B000MM3Z6C/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1499873486&sr=8-14&keywords=GFCI

[paddy-stone]

We don't have any outlets except for electric shavers in the bathroom. I or any of my family also would know the dangers of trying to use elctrical devices near water. I feel sorry for the girl and her family, that lesson was very harsh in it's outcome and something they will never forget or get over maybe. At the same time, I think the culture of "nannying" that some governments/countries have, have contributed to stuff like this... because they see warnings pretty much everywhere, which should be common sense, some people grow up never learning common sense at all, and this is the result. When I was young we never had any of this stuff that has warnings on it nowadays, but maybe we didn't have as much stuff either.... worst thing happened to me through stupidity was falling from a tree upside down into a thorn hedgerow, just made me be more careful in trees though, lol.

 

My heart goes out to the family and wish the girl had had another chance to learn a lesson from the mistake instead of dying.

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, goodtofufriday said:

100ma can kill you. 

it can , if it goes through vital organs . If you were to put a 5V 1amp charger to your skin right now however , it wouldn't do anything , because the amount of voltage directly determines the current you can pass through a given resistance . at 5V , on dry skin (100Kohms ) , you can only pass 10µohms , and that's disregarding the internal resistance of you body , past the skin .

[goodtofufriday]

5 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

it can , if it goes through vital organs . If you were to put a 5V 1amp charger to your skin right now however , it wouldn't do anything , because the amount of voltage directly determines the current you can pass through a given resistance . at 5V , on dry skin (100Kohms ) , you can only pass 10µohms , and that's disregarding the internal resistance of you body , past the skin .

https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/JackHsu.shtml This coupled with a fast charger can kill you. 9v is more than enough.