Fact Check

By Reuters Fact Check

4 Min Read

A video shows a ticket examiner at the Kharagpur railway station in India being electrocuted when a live wire hit him on the head. The video, however, is being shared online alongside an unrelated claim that the electrocution happened due to wearing Bluetooth earphones.

A Twitter post (here) with more than 128,900 views at the time of publishing read in part, “AVOID using Bluetooth earpieces close to HIGH-TENSION electrical facilities & cables eg railway stations. The brain might be struck directly by electrical current from the cables precipitating quick death.”

Other examples can be seen (here) and (here).

The video shows two men talking on a train platform when a long, thin wire comes into frame and lands on the head of the man on the left. He is electrocuted and falls back onto the tracks, while the other man and onlookers run out of frame.

Indian media (here) , (here) and (here) reported that the video shows Sujan Singh Sardar, a traveling ticket examiner, who was injured at Kharagpur railway station in West Bengal, India after a live wire fell on his head.

India Today reported (here) that Kharagpur division railway manager Mohammad Sujat Hashmi said, “We don’t know the exact reason but there were some decorative wires that probably injured the TTE. Fortunately, he is stable. The official is alright and we spoke to him.”

Hashmi did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

The reports do not mention Bluetooth earphones.

A representative for the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), a non-profit organization (www.icnirp.org/) that advises on non-ionizing radiation to protect people and the environment, told Reuters via email that radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMFs) used by Bluetooth devices and electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from some trains, are “governed by rules that ensure that they are not strong enough to cause harm to people.”

“Also there is no interference possible from the low frequency fields of the train system with the radiofrequency fields of Bluetooth,” the representative said. “As a result, the video shared on Twitter, which appears to show someone being electrocuted, will not occur as a result of normal environmental exposure to EMFs, such as from Bluetooth, trains, or even the combination of Bluetooth and trains.”

False. The incident seen in the video took place in India, where a ticket examiner was injured by a falling live wire, according to local reports. The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) confirmed to Reuters that using Bluetooth near trains will not cause the reaction seen in the video.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work  here.         

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