14 DAY TRIAL // A 14-year-old girl from Lovington, New Mexico died last weekend after her smartphone electrocuted her while taking a bath, as the device was plugged into an outlet.
While it’s not very clear how exactly the whole thing happened, the family of Madison Coe says the teenager was taking a bath and she either attempted to plug in her phone or tried to grab her smartphone that was already connected to the wall charger.
Once she touched the phone, the girl was electrocuted, with a burn mark left on her hand, her grandmother, Donna O'Guinn, told KCBD.
Of course, it goes without saying that the death of the girl wasn’t caused by a faulty device, but by the deadly combination of water and electricity. And because teenagers are very keen on using their phones at all times, the family of the 14-year-old is now trying to raise awareness of the risks of using devices plugged into an outlet in the bathroom.
Raising awareness
The family has launched a campaign on Facebook, calling for everyone to share the message and make more teens aware they shouldn’t be using electronic devices in the bathroom.
“This is such a tragedy that doesn’t need to happen to anyone else. And we want something good to come out of this as awareness of not using your cell phone in the bathroom as it is plugged in and charging. It’s overwhelming to realize that there are people that we don’t even know and we’ll probably never even meet that have taken this message and shared it to protect another child or even an adult. We don’t want to lose anybody,” the grandmother explained.
There is no information as to what smartphone the girl was using, but such details are pretty much irrelevant because no phone could have saved her life once she touched the wall charger.
Smartphones are indeed becoming water-resistant and getting IP68 ratings, but this doesn’t mean that you can use them while connected to the charger because water and electricity remain a deadly combination no matter what.
