A New Yorker has died in Thailand after slipping on a wet sidewalk and being electrocuted by a malfunctioning streetlight, authorities said Friday.
Thula Kyaw, 33, was walking with his girlfriend to a seafood restaurant in Thalang district around 9:30pm on Thursday when he fell on the rainy road and tried to prop himself up on a telephone pole, police said. said an eyewitness. thetiger.com.
He was knocked unconscious by the impact of the lamppost, which may have been connected to a live power line, and was rushed to a nearby hospital, police Major Thanom Thongpaeng told the program.
Stunned witnesses ran to his aid, but to no avail.
“I saw the man fall, but his foot was still touching the pole. I tried to touch him, but I got zapped myself,” said the witness, identified only as Phiew, and an Asian He told Pacific News.
“We managed to remove his leg from the lamppost before calling an ambulance,” he said.
A friend of his girlfriend said Cho, who is also Burmese by nationality, had flown from the United States a week earlier to visit his long-distance partner, whom he had not seen in six years.
“I was having dinner at a restaurant when they arrived. His girlfriend was walking in front of him and he followed her and slipped on the wet ground,” the friend said.
Authorities then cut power to the pole, which carried 220 volts, to prevent further fatalities.
Officials said Cho was pronounced dead at Thalang Hospital. It was not immediately clear where he lived in New York or what he did for work.
Thai police could not be reached for comment Friday.
