An 18-year-old Phnom Penh art student is scheduled for cremation and burial today, after a live wire from a downed line electrocuted him Monday.
The family of Phal Puthyphal is planning to cremate him at Wat Ounalom at 9 am.
He was electrocuted Monday night while walking to his Street 178 home near the Japanese Embassy.
Phal Puthyphal was 200 meters from his house when he stepped into a puddle in which a downed wire lay.
He was shocked and collapsed onto the water-filled street.
He lay there until neighbors took him to a nearby house, witnesses said.
The day’s heavy rains snarled traffic, and it was more than an hour before neighbors were able to get Phal Puthyphal to Calmette Hospital, witnesses said. He apparently died before he reached the hospital.
“It was raining very hard, and I wondered where my son was. And then I received a phone call around 8:30 that my son was dead,” his mother, Then Sothun said.
Then Sothun said she would file suit against Electricite du Cambodge, the owner of the house from which the wire was connected, and the “offender” who connected the wire.
Power company officials and the house owner Wednesday blamed each other for Phal Puthyphal’s death.
“It’s their freedom [to sue], but the court will find justice,” said Chea Sin Hel, distribution director at Electricite du Cambodge.
“The cable is a telephone line that the house owner hadn’t used in a long time, and it was hanging around a bar,” Chea Sin Hel said.
Sou Ny, the house owner, blamed the power company.
“The electricity was outside the gate, so it’s not related to my business,” he said.
Phal Puthyphal was a fifth-year drawing student at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Then Sothun said. He had planned to become a professor of art.
His death has left his family devastated.
“And now, all our plans are gone,” Then Sothun said.
