High school football player killed by lightning in Florida

[LoKyBuckeye]

LINK

5:28 a.m. October 6, 2005

High school football player killed by lightning in Florida

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – A high school football player was killed and several people were injured by lightning after a game was stopped because of a thunderstorm.
Schaffner Noel, 15, was hit in the chest Wednesday and transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Coconut Creek police spokeswoman Judy Banks said.

Another junior varsity player and a cheerleader who had been standing next to Noel were injured. They were hospitalized in serious but stable condition, Banks said.

Ten other students and a police officer knocked down by the strike were treated at Monarch High School for cuts, bruises and abrasions, Banks said.

Witnesses said referees had stopped the football game because of thunder. The students were coming off the field when Noel was struck, Banks said.

Coaches, faculty and students had little warning of the thunderstorm, which moved in quickly, she said.

Noel's brother Wagner, 16, who plays varsity football at the school, described a chaotic scene after the lightning struck.

"We were starting to walk in and we saw the junior varsities walking in too and then we saw this huge lightning. It seemed like it hit the field, so everybody started running."

 

[gregorylee]

that is just fucked up, didn't these sorry ass ref's ever hear of a "forecast"?

 

[strohs]

that is just fucked up, didn't these sorry ass ref's ever hear of a "forecast"?

They said it moved in quickly, and in Florida that can indeed be the case.

 

[jlb1705]

I've heard that people are most often victimized by lightning strikes at the very front end and back end of a storm - but not so much during the actual storm.

 

[LoKyBuckeye]

Florida is the lightning capital of the world... lightning strikes happen all the time so you think they would have taken more precautions.

 

[Steve19]

This is very, very sad.

Actually, the highest concentration of lightning in the world is along an axis from Harare, Zimbabwe to Johannesburg, South Africa, ostensibly because of all of the metals concentrated in the earth and the high altitude of the area (over a mile high, like Denver). Every summer, hundreds of people are struck by lightning in the rural areas and, most of the time, people say they were struck by lightning early or late in the storm. Maybe because they don't know its a lightning storm early on or think that its over later.

Spare a thought for this kid's poor parents. How extremely sad.