14 DAY TRIAL // A Rowan University student is going after both Amazon and the manufacturer of a third-party phone charger after he suffered burns caused by an explosion suffered by the device in his pocket.
David Jarrett suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns on his right hand, right thigh and calf last year after a portable phone charger (an external battery pack) caught fire while charging his iPhone. The student was carrying the portable charger in his right pant pocket, just next to the phone, to have the device charged while he was playing pool.
The device first got hot and then it burst into flames, with friends who were playing pool with him in the Chamberlain Student Center at Rowan University helping to put out the fire and then call an ambulance.
NJ.com reveals that Jarrett is now seeking damages from both EasyAcc, which manufactured the portable charger, and from Amazon, which sold and shipped the device.
Amazon tight-lipped so far
No further details have been provided, as to what damages the student is seeking from the two companies, but it’s hard to believe Amazon can be dragged into the lawsuit since it only distributed the device and wasn’t involved in the actual manufacturing process. Neither Amazon nor EasyAcc released statements on the lawsuit.
In the last couple of years, the number of phones and accessories that caught fire skyrocketed, emphasizing the risks of lithium-ion batteries in smart devices that we carry around wherever we go.
South Korean firm Samsung was forced to recall a full series of phones last year after it was discovered that the Galaxy Note 7 model shipped with faulty batteries that suffered overheating and occasionally burst into flames.
After an attempt to replace the bad batteries with safe units, overheating was still experienced and the company finally decided to pull the model off the market in order to reduce the risks of injuries and damages caused by a possible phone explosion.