Today, I watched a disturbing video posted by one of my acquaintances on Whatsapp Status in which a person standing on the Railway Platform suddenly gets electrocuted.
“The status stated that headphones should not be used while traveling by train.”
Upon searching this video for more information, I realized that the viral video is already doing rounds among Social media and WhatsApp users, who are sharing the video purporting to show a Traveling Ticket Examiner (TTE) being electrocuted by his cellphone.
The video is shared on Facebook with a caption: “நடைமேடையில் நின்று கொண்டிருக்கும்போது செல்போன் மூலம் மின்சாரம் இழுக்கப்பட்டு உயிர் இழந்த டிக்கெட் பரிசோதகர். மஞ்சள் நிற கோட்டை தாண்ட வேண்டாம்” (English translation: A ticket inspector died after being electrocuted by his cell phone while standing on the platform. Do not cross the yellow line.)
According to a fact check by HydNewsToday, the News is not Fake but MISLEADING.
By taking the Still screenshot of the viral video and searching a Reverse Image Search in TinyEye, we traced a tweet posted by Railway Officer Anand Ruppanagudi on December 8, 2022, that contained the viral video.
“A freak accident—a long piece of loose cable, taken by a bird somehow came in contact with the OHE wire and the other end came down and touched a TTE’s head,” the tweet reads.
At Kharagpur station yesterday afternoon, he sustained burn injuries but was unharmed.
That means the accident was due to a loose cable and not because of the Ear Phones or Hands-Free as claimed by many WhatsApp users.
The same incident has been covered in a number of news articles.
One of the reports reads: “In the video, two ticket collectors are seen talking to each other at the railway station in Kharagpur, West Bengal, when a live wire falls on the platform and touches the ticket collector’s head.”
Therefore, the person in the viral video was electrocuted when he made contact with a high-tension live wire, not by a cell phone or ear phones or hands free, as is clear from the information above.
