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+6 [6 votes]
What significance does this have to a gadget site? HE WAS KILLED BY HIS EXPLODING CELL PHONE!!! That’s what significance it has.
The phone you see above (it looks like a Samsung, but that hasn’t been verified yet) exploded in the 33-year old excavator driver’s shirt pocket. He was found dead next to his Excavator in a stone quarry by his friends.
The explosion melted, and fractured his chest and killed him. Sure it’s a rare occurrence, especially since batteries are designed to melt, not explode, when things go downhill (when was melting decided to be better than exploding?!). So, if you have a phone that looks eerily similar to this one, I’d go get a bomb proof case for it, and a Bluetooth headset so you don’t actually have to put the thing next to your head.
UPDATE!: It turns out, the phone was not a Samsung phone, it was an LG. So, Samsung phone owners are safe (which is good, because I really like their phones, especially the one I have) but LG phone owners might have a reason to worry (not really, word is this doesn’t happen hardly ever).
Exploding Phone Kills [via ubergizmo]
Meh…. I believe that a cell phone explosion having enough “umph” to kill a person is unrealistic. Perhaps the phone could melt and severely burn you but to impose that the impact of the explosion would kill, I think would probably allow for a much more damaged phone, not a chunk of melted battery case. I will concede that a melting/exploding phone may have contributed to a mans death - especially in a quarry. Perhaps the phone burned him and he fell/tripped in the confusion of his phone burning him. As for me I have little fear of my phone killing me. I would be much more able to accept that the Microwave radio radiation to your brain would cause death, when (if) in the future that research reveals that radio radiation does in fact cause cancer. Just like PVCs were once thought safe, but then discovered they depleted the ozone, and DHT killed not only bugs and pests, but birds as well. And I’m still waiting for them to link the Microwave oven to something harmful.
I also find it odd that people get bent out of shape for this kind of thing. If the paper read, Man driving car drinks Vodka - dies, no one would really rally around that. But I understand the element of the exploding phone’s rarity. But to read this many times over, is just overkill, on a topic, I believe is not possible (or very near impossible).
Contrary to initial speculation, the phone is actually an LG, not a Samsung. This was confirmed by Telecoms Korea here: http://www.telecomskorea.com/i.....p;Itemid=2
Travis Hudson
MWW Group, on behalf of Samsung