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A backpacking student was electrocuted when he touched a live socket as he sheltered from a storm on a beautiful Thai island.
Charlie Thomas, from Sale in Greater Manchester, was killed instantly when he put his hand on the wet power outlet set in a tiled pavement outside a department store on Phuket.

British backpacker electrocuted and killed in Thailand after touching live power socket while sheltering from storm | Mail Online

The article says it was an electrical socket, reading this I wonder what the voltage was at the socket, surely more than 230 Volts, I mean he must have just leaned on it with one hand.

What do you think?

 
Ok but what do you think happened, I mean if the guy touched a live wire at 230 Volts and was standing on a wet pavement with water flowing past his toes and this water then flowing onto the neutral or earth would this be enough to kill him?

Instant death, I would have thought the supply needed to be more than 230 Volts to cause this.

Edit, not even sure if they have an earth circuit in Thailand.
 
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A combination of factors will kill you, why do you think we tend to keep touch voltages in the UK to 50v maximum, we know that as low as 10mA will give you a very nasty experience, and above that start heart fibrillation.

We are talking about Thailand where it is hot and humid and the guy was sweating most likely and so his resistance would be drastically altered. He may have also had an underlying health problem or heart ryhthem

We are talking Thailand where chances are there was no earth on that socket and there could have been a small fault on the circuit, unfortunately the poor lad was a combination of many factors to give him the "Biggie" for him any way
 
Remember, It's not the Voltage that kills you, it's the current flowing through your heart.
Humans, water & electricity - not a good combination.
Google 'fatal current' for further reading.
 
Never having been to Thailand is this the norm over there "Socket in a tiled pavement outside a department store"
It sounds pretty bad and obviouslywas for the guy in question.
 
I'm just wondering how the circuit was completed.

His hand touched the live, his feet or some other part of his body was touching the pavement, the pavement was wet with water running into the socket and touching the neutral.

Electricity flowed up his arm, through his body, down to his feet and then through water back to the neutral.

Does this sound plausible?

Obviously no RCD protection or if there was initially it was probably later removed from the circuit because it kept tripping.
 
No it doesn't. Think about it La Poste, where would electricity flow through you if you touched a live part?
You would become the ..... ....?
 
But it has to enter your body at one place and exit your body at another.

I thought that's how electrickery worked, it has to make a circuit and if this guy had his hand touching a live part then some other part of his body would need to be the exit point, perhaps the current flowed across his heart in the process but there must have been an exit point and the current must have somehow found its way back to complete a circuit.

I wonder what the earthing system was here, perhaps he had bare feet.
 
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There was a question posted on another forum, A Thai forum from a guy who wanted to know how to avoid being killed in Thailand whilst on his holidays, killed by electrocution I mean.

I'm thinking maybe spend the whole holiday walking around in a rubber suit with gloves and socks all made from rubber but that's not really practical.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks.
 
Any current above 50milliamps will kill you,I did give the figures and the why,s and wherefores in a previous post,this is because it causes ventricular fibrillation,in laymans terms the heart flutters instead of beating normally and at that speed the blood is not pumped around the body resulting in death.A shock is more likely to prove fatal if the contact and earth are at 2 different points e.g touching a live part whilst stood on a concrete floor.If for example you touched a live part with your finger but an earthed part with the thumb of same hand whilst stood on an insulating surface eg wood or carpet you would receive a shock and probably burns however the chances are it would not be fatal.
 

The article says it was an electrical socket, reading this I wonder what the voltage was at the socket, surely more than 230 Volts, I mean he must have just leaned on it with one hand.



I lived in thailand for a few years and did a few foreigners there, the voltage is 240V well kind of everything is fed via overhead lines with pole mounted transformers every so often, so if you're "lucky" you get around 250V.

Most places don't have earthed sockets, just the 2P ones, although there was a rumour going round a few years ago that you had to put 3P&E ones in before you would get a supply. This was kind of generally ignored though, you either bought the inspector a bottle of whisky to look the other way and just connect the supply. 3P&E being present does not however mean that an earth wire gets put in, you don't get a MET as they're TT supplies or something similar and not many Thais seem to bother with earth rods.

On getting a shock, I was putting a light up for a mate in his bar and I got right belt from the wooden frame holding the roof up, it was a palm leaf roof and it had rained for a week so with all the tape joints that were around, not really surprising...
 
A backpacking student was electrocuted when he touched a live socket as he sheltered from a storm on a beautiful Thai island.
Charlie Thomas, from Sale in Greater Manchester, was killed instantly when he put his hand on the wet power outlet set in a tiled pavement outside a department store on Phuket.

British backpacker electrocuted and killed in Thailand after touching live power socket while sheltering from storm | Mail Online

The article says it was an electrical socket, reading this I wonder what the voltage was at the socket, surely more than 230 Volts, I mean he must have just leaned on it with one hand.

What do you think?


Who cares?

It wasn't in the UK - the land of Part Pee and I had nowt to do with it. (Part Pee or the installation)
 
I lived in Thailand for 2 years.

This is very common but I do actually remember this one.

Broken socket in pavement outside department/shopping centre - water Fountain nearby (so hence water on pavement).

Bloke would have almost certainly been wearing flip flops.

Couple all this with a 240V 50Hz system (same as us) with absolutely no regulation = Death very common from electrocution for the unwary.

Basicly if you go to Thailand and see a cable/electrical fitting that is flapping around FFS DO NOT go near! - It will be live and it will kill you.
 
Remember, It's not the Voltage that kills you, it's the current flowing through your heart.
Humans, water & electricity - not a good combination.
Google 'fatal current' for further reading.
Personally I think I'd rather have 20amps at 9volts than 20 amps at 11KV

Saying 'It's not the Voltage that kills you, it's the current flowing through your heart'
is a bit like saying
'Its not the speed of the car that kills you its the weight of the car driving into your legs'
 
Check out Live Working geezers who work on energised xyzKV lines.
They're at huge potentials, but because they are not part of a circuit, no current flow. Hence they can go back to work the next day.

edit...

I'd like to see you dance with 20 Amps cruising through your body, at any voltage.
Assuming you hadn't vapourised in the meantime :)
 
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