OT: Texas teen electrocuted after apparent cell phone mishap in bathtub

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It said the charger fell into the tub. My guess is, the typical charging cord is too short to reach a tub so it was plugged into an extension cord. I can see a teenager planning to relax in the tub with her phone and improvising and not thinking of the potential hazard.

That was my first thought (see above), but the article specifically states the charger was plugged into a wall outlet. Of course, reporters are not always precise.

And that the victim had burn marks on the hand that would have been used to reach the phone. Very strange. I wonder what age that house was, no GFCI? Even with no GFCI, reaching and winding up with burn marks seems odd.

It was plugged into a wall outlet - via an extension cord.

I suppose if she was in the tub and was trying to plug the charger into the wall outlet, her fingers could have come in contact with the hot 120 spade lug on the charger, that would do it.

Did you read or hear that in a news report? Or are you speculating?

speculating, of course!

That certainly could happen, but how do you then explain burn marks? You could get a lethal shock, but I'm having a hard time seeing a current sufficient to make burn marks. It sounded to me like they said she was reaching for the phone on the charger.

Thanks for clarifying that. As I just wrote in another post, I can see that if she were in a tub of water and was trying to plug in the charger, she could have come into close enough proximity with the hot spade lug of the charger to cause a fatal episode.

It is a shame. I really hate the intense addiction so many people have to these devices.

If the point of entry for the electricity was her finger and if her arm and hand were wet, I can see the power traveling along and causing a burn on her hand, can't you?

These devices? Like computers (and newsgroups)? And addicted people... PKB much? LOL!

Yes Ron, devices like that, but more so, devices like portable smart phones which distract people's attention in very dangerous situations, e.g. driving, walking, bathing, operating dangerous machinery, horseback riding (two of my grand children), cycling, etc.

I know you were trying to be a smartass, but, it was a swing and a miss.

No, not typically. You would think the resistance path is still pretty high and that there wouldn't be enough current there, but I guess it's possible. I would think you'd generally need direct prolonged contact with a conductor to get a burn or higher voltage.

Being soaking wet, and in contact with a direct source to ground would present a relatively low A/C impedance, if I am not mistaken. Regardless, as we don't have access to the corpse or scene of the accident, I think we have done a fairly good job of coming up with reasonable scenarios.

Either that or whoever installed the wall outley didn't fasten it to the wall very well, and didn't have a GFCI breaker (a gfci outlet doesn't do any good if it falls into the water)

Absolutely NO WAY a charger can fall into the tub and still be live UNLESS it is plugged into an extention cord - and even then, if it had a GFCI she would still be alive - and would not have even felt anything.

Too much missing information. If it was an older home it would not have gfci. It was not code until 1971. No mention of an extension cord. Was she in the tub or just wet?

Teenagers don't always think about water and electricity and its "just a phone".

Yeah, well I have been watching too many back to back episodes of Law and Order to really believe there wasn't foul play involved.

there, I fixed that for ya, Ed : )