Man Apparently Killed by Power Surge in Mobile Phone

A report coming in from media outlets in Ghana is suggesting that an electrical short-circuit in a mobile phone may have killed its owner. The report in the Modern Ghana website claims that the phone rang whilst it was still charging, and when the owner, an unnamed young man answered the call - some sort of malfunction occurred and the man was thrown the ground unconscious.

Hearing the noise, his parents rushed to assist him and he was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

This is the first report we have come across of an electrical surge in a mobile phone charger actually killing someone - indeed as the phone charger is primarily a voltage regulator - this is the first time we have ever heard of such a device malfunctioning in this manner. At the very least, if the reports are correct then the phone charger was highly likely to be at fault, and equally likely not to be a manufacturer original unit. To date, every incident of exploding mobile phone batteries has been traced to poor quality copies from 3rd party suppliers.

The news report has very limited information about the incident, and the brand of the phone implicated was not named.

On the web: Modern Ghana

Posted to the site on 28th January 2008