You may have read elsewhere of the sensational claim that a man in Korea was killed by a mobile phone exploding in his pocket. Well, we hate to come over all smug, but the obvious fact that it was a cover up has come to light after a colleague of the victim admitted that he had been responsible for the death.
The quarry employee, known only by his family name Seo, was reported dead last week with a melted phone in his shirt pocket. When his colleague Kwon Young-sup said he'd seen it explode, it sparked hysterical media coverage worldwide.
Gory fascination
Naturally, protestations by the maker of the phone, LG, that the lithium polymer batteries found in its phones simply couldn't explode were mostly ignored and the scare stories continued. After all, tales of handsets powerful enough to break a man's spine and lacerate his internal organs were bound to fascinate.
Now, however, LG can rest easy and stand down its liability lawyers after Kwon came clean and admitted that he actually drove his truck over the unfortunate victim.
According to reports, Kwon said: "All this happened in a moment, and I was too afraid about the accident. So I lied that the battery exploded and killed Seo."
Although two lives are now ruined, perhaps the news from Korea will prompt Sony to start looking for a way to roll back the clock on its own damaging battery fiasco from last year.
