Posted on 09/16/2004 2:05:44 PM PDT by LouAvul
GRAPELAND, Texas (AP) -- A high school football player injured when lightning struck the team as it finished practice has died of severe burns, authorities said.
Russell Pennington, a senior at Grapeland High School, died Wednesday in a hospital. He was among about 40 players and coaches with the team in east Texas who were hospitalized after the lightning bolt struck Tuesday afternoon.
Other injured players were treated for soreness, headaches, abdominal pains and burns, and all had been released Wednesday.
One coach was listed in good condition, hospital officials said.
Assistant coach Jerry Richards said about 40 players were running sprints when the bolt struck one player in the middle of the pack and others hit the ground.
"It staggered everybody," he said. "The force of it either knocked you down or knocked you backward several feet."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
This young man's mom was a long time employee of KBHT Radio. His loss will be deeply felt by all.....
Any coach that keeps his team on the field with an electrical storm threatening, and a kid gets killed, deserves a manslaughter charge.
My best friend's mother was struck by lightning, WELL before the storm was close. Lightning can really REALLY branch away from a storm front.
Poor kid, a prayer for him and his family.
What is it, ten miles from the storm that lightning can strike? I thought that's what I've heard.
Wednesday September 15, 2004 4:16 AM
GRAPELAND, Texas (AP) - More than 30 high school football players and coaches were injured, two critically, when lightning struck near their practice field Tuesday evening, authorities said.
The bolt struck as practice for the team at Grapeland High School in east Texas was winding down, according to radio station KBHT.
``This occurred just out of the blue, no warning. It's not like lightning was flashing and building up,'' Grapeland Police Chief Roger Dickey said. ``It just caught everybody off guard and it had already hit before anybody knew it.''
Both of the critically injured were players. All the injured were being treated at hospitals. They complained of soreness, abdominal pain and headaches - ``just severe pain all over their bodies,'' hospital spokeswoman Rebecca Berkley said.
Grapeland is about 120 miles southeast of Dallas.
Get informed. Lightning can strike when there is NO storm nearby.
I'd buy one myself & donate it to the school if I lived on the Great Plains & my kid wanted to play football.
A bunch of kids in helmuts huddling is the middle of an open field is a virtual lightning rod.
http://www.strikealert.com/
$79, might be a bit easier to justify in terms of cost.
I like that model, I might get one for myself. I don't do lighting anymore.
There were several times when my daughter, holding a flute, was forced to stay on the field during lightning storms. I was frantic.
Prayers for the family, jeers to the coach.
The local water park has one...works quite well.
I read where these type of devices were in wide use in FL.
Yep...we get forklightning like you wouldn't believe where I am.
Also need to realise that lighning starts from the ground up, lots of people figure it drops down...
It's those stinking GOP policies that are causing all this weather.
OK, sorry, couldn't resist.
ya, i go to grapeland high school and guess what we have a lightning detector.. that shows technology just doesn't work sometimes.
Actually friend, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, or any indication of a storm. They also had some kind of machine in use that warns of a lightning threat. It didn't register anything. The lightning struck 75 yards from the team, and traveled up through the ground.
The coach was hurt as well.
They had one. It didn't work.
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