The unfortunate accident took place in India. 60 years old denizen of a Netavalgarh Pachhli village went to bed with his Jio smartphone in his pocket. When he woke up at night to go to bathroom, the phone exploded – man’s wife, who saw the whole thing happening, described it as ”flames covering his clothes”. Injured, the man was hospitalized but died from severe burns.

As much as death is no laughing matter, it is hard not to think that the accident was victim’s own fault. If the man did not sleep with his phone put into a tight and overly warm place like his pocket, the battery inside it would not warp and swell, which was the eventual cause of the explosion. The case has other angles than ”just” a death of one person, though. Indian government has recently started a funding program in which every citizen can cheaply acquire a Jio smartphone, thus enabling everyone to have a mobile phone. The above accident might cause a drastic, and unwarranted, decrease in citizens’ trust towards the government-issued smartphones.