A Youth Motorcyclist Was Just Electrocuted After Braving a Flooded Street

While motorcycles tend to be able to traverse water crossings and rivers and streams, it's a bad idea to wade through floodwaters, as downed powerlines can lead to being electrocuted, as one guy recently found out.

By: Jonathon Klein

Sep 10, 2025 at 9:29am ET

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I've crossed a lot of water on the back of a motorcycle. It's a fun thing to do when you're out in the woods, as it tests your abilities to the max. There are slippery rocks, unseen ruts and holes, large fish, and sometimes even bears. But there's also a time and, far more importantly, a place for crossing water. The backcountry is the place to test those skills and your machine.

What aren't are floodwater-choked city streets, as they make the hazards of the woods look as if you were a full-on Bubble Boy, encased in an impenetrable protective layer.

Seriously, floodwaters are no joke within the city limits, as there's countless unseen, and far more dangerous hazards than in the woods. One youth motorcycle rider recently found this out in Bangkok, Thailand, when he was attempting to get through the flooded street with his motorcycle, only to grab a concrete barrier with a live wire running through it, and electrocuted himself to death.

According to the Bangkok Post, "A 17-year-old boy was electrocuted while pushing his motorcycle through floodwater when he grabbed hold of a concrete barrier with an electrical wire running along it, in Samut Prakan early Monday morning. He was killed about 1am on flooded Praekasa Road in tambon Praekasa, Muang district police said."

The outlet goes on to state that witnesses told local police that the youth was pushing his motorcycle through the floodwaters when a car rolled through and created a large wave. As the wave hit the young man, it threw him off balance, which caused him to reach out toward the barrier to stop himself from falling with the bike. What the youth didn't know, however, was that a powerline from a nearby construction site had been run through the barrier, and was still live.

Police and rescuers couldn't then assist the boy since they needed the city to cut power to this specific section of the power lines, which took far too time in order to save his life. Law enforcement, however, is now supposedly investigating the construction company, after "placing the barriers and running the electric cables over them" and consider legal action.

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I get you have to go places, and in this instance, it may well be the fault of the construction company for placing a cable where they did, but any time a city street floods, you have this possibility, as water and electricity don't mix. Yet, often with floods and rains and storms of this manner, you may get those ingredients mixing together. Power lines go down. Pipes break and open other cables. Batteries go bad when exposed to water.

If you can help it, don't ride a bike through a flooded street.