Cyclist Suffers Severe Burns After ’iPhone Explodes’ In Mountain Bike Crash
A cyclist who suffered severe burns to his leg says his iPhone exploded after he crashed his mountain bike.
Gareth Clear, 36, from Sydney, Australia, had his Apple device in his pocket while cycling around Manly Dam on Sunday afternoon.
He landed on his iPhone 6 when he fell from his bike, and a few seconds later he said he noticed smoke and extreme heat.
Mr Clear said he then heard an explosion and the phone melted through his shorts, burning into the skin on his upper right thigh.
The severe burns meant he had to undergo skin graft surgery at the burns unit of the Royal North Shore Hospital.
He had owned the phone for six months.
“It was a one in one million chance I hit a part of the phone which pierced the lithium battery and it exploded,” Mr Clear told the Australian Daily Telegraph.
“I’ve had a mobile phone for 18 years of my life and for that thing to explode or short circuit and cause it to temporarily ignite.
“I could see the metal bending and all the lithium leaking out of the bottom end.”
An image taken of the phone (below) by Mr Clear shows the top part of the device is intact, while the bottom is crushed.
Mr Clear, who has set up a Twitter account to tell his story, said Apple told him they were investigating the incident.
(Pictures: Gareth Clear via Storyful)
