Incinerated ... the remains of the mobile phone / Reuters
Posted on 11/29/2007 8:05:20 AM PST by BGHater
A 33-year-old South Korean quarry worker was found dead with a burning mobile phone stuck to his chest, police and the doctor who examined the man said today.
The man, who was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital, had burns on his chest, fractured ribs and internal bleeding, the doctor said.
"When he was admitted into the emergency room, the melted mobile phone was stuck to the left side of his shirt," said Kim Hoon, professor at emergency department at Chungbuk National University Hospital, who examined the victim.
"I cannot think of any other cause of his death other than his mobile phone exploding," Prof Kim said.
Police said they are investigating that as a possible cause and whether it was triggered by a faulty battery, Yonhap news agency reported.
It will take about 10 days to complete the probe into what led to the death.
"He (the victim) was found lying next to an excavator while working at a stone quarry," an official from the Cheongju Heungdeok police station, about 100km southeast of Seoul, said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Incinerated ... the remains of the mobile phone / Reuters
Can you hear me now?
The machines have started to turn on us! Head for the hills.
Fractured ribs, internal bleeding?
Are they sure that the flaming phone wasn’t launched at him?
Did this guy ever get crosswise with the Mossad?
Personally, I’d like to see this occur with bluetooth headsets.
You beat me to it.
‘quarry worker’
Gotta be more to the story, aka keeping some type of exploding substance in your pocket with your phone.
Doesn’t look enough of an explosion to kill a man. A phone that exploded with enough force to kill a man should have been blasted into fragments.
While the battery in a cell phone can certainly burst into flames, which would definitely be unpleasant, I’m not aware of LiPo batteries ever “exploding”, certainly not with enough force to break ribs and cause internal bleeding. Seems rather more likely that something struck him in the chest, hard, damaging the phone’s battery in the process, which then burst into flames.
He was probably hit with something, like a rock, or equipment. That same something damaged the phone to cause a short. Obviously the phone didn’t explode.
Gotta be more to the story, aka keeping some type of exploding substance in your pocket with your phone.
“”””””””””
A lighter? I know they have blown up when a welding spark lands on one in a welder’s pocket.
Blasting Cap in pocket with cell phone. Could happen in a quarry.
Lithium batteries pack enough punch to kill a man no lighter needed.
Yes, thats a good thought. Or, like mentioned above, was struck by something that caused the injuries, and caused the phone to malfunction.
That’s a hell of a late penalty for not paying the phone bill!
Perhaps it was the man involved. He exploded, destroying the victim cell phone.
Perhaps he was annoyed at it, had an axe to grind. This could be a homicidal-to-cellphones-suicide bomber.
Calling Dave Barry!
Do not taunt happy fun ball.
That was my thought too. I couldn’t buy something the size of a phone killing him via blunt force trauma, which was what the broken ribs seemed to indicate. I didn’t think of the projectile angle, but that doesn’t seem to explain the broken ribs. This is a little bizarre.
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