Oh boy, it has been so long! I can barely contain my enthusiasm! … ehm. Detroit, May 21st (I do not know why the news hit the Internet only now). A woman has been driving her car, with two Samsung devices (Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S8) in the car’s cupboard, when suddenly she saw sparks coming out of one of the smartphones, after which it caught fire. The woman reportedly barely mananged to pull over and get out of the vehicle before it was engulfed in flames. According to the victim’s testament, „I thought I was going to die when I saw the sparks and the fire”.
Detroit Fire Department confirms the driver’s story. The woman is not hurt physically but is said to be traumatized by the event. Samsung has quickly responded by sending a crew to determine what exacly happened. So far the driver has not filed a lawsuit. Samsung states that:
”We stand behind the quality and safety of the millions of Samsung phones in the U.S. We are eager to conduct a full investigation of this matter and until we are able to examine all of the evidence, it is impossible to determine the true cause of any incident”.
News coverage of the accident is available here.
As excited as I am to write about burning smartphones once more, I would rather no one has their life and possessions risked by a malfunctioning device. Hopefully such events will be more and more rare in the future as the smartphones’ safety standards rise. On the other side, the whole story feels a bit fabricated… there is this ”it is all a ruse to get me some money” vibe going on. Maybe I am too cynical, though. What do you think?