A tragic incident occurred in Italy when a teenager lost her life after dropping her phone in the bathtub while on a call with a friend.
Maria Antonietta Cutillo, 16, was bathing at her home in Montefalcione, Avellino, Italy, while her parents were away. According to the Daily Mail, Cutillo was speaking to her friend on her phone, which was plugged in and charging at the time. The phone accidentally fell into the water, causing a short circuit that led to her electrocution.
Emergency services were alerted by her friend after the call abruptly ended, and upon arrival, they found Cutillo had already passed away.
The autopsy confirmed that Cutillo died from electrocution. While rare, there have been other instances of people dying from similar accidents involving electronic devices.
In a related case reported by the Mirror, 27-year-old Wanchai Deengam from Thailand died in February under similar circumstances. Deengam had fallen asleep with his phone charging, along with a smartwatch, two rice cookers, and two fans plugged into an extension outlet.
Deengam’s older brother, Somkuan Changsarn, grew worried when he couldn’t reach him. “I was suspicious because normally, he wasn’t a deep sleeper. I would always see him sitting in front of his room when I finished work,” Changsarn said. He added, “He liked to use his phone just for chatting with friends on the Line application. He used TikTok a lot and Facebook to watch sports but he didn’t play games.”
Changsarn mentioned that they had discussed the dangers of using phones while charging, but it never seemed a significant risk. “We spoke before about using phones while they are charging because there were cases in the news about it happening. But everybody still does. I never thought this could happen or I would have warned my brother more.”
Unfortunately, Deengam was found deceased, still holding his phone, with his left arm resting on his Samsung device.
Police Captain Jiratchaya Yordkum from the Rat Burana Metropolitan Police Station stated, “We found no traces of assault or ransacking. We suspect that a short circuit might have caused his electrocution.” The Police Captain also noted that Deengam had plugged his device into the socket without using the correct adapter.
RIP.
