Advocacy & Safety - Bike-riding teen killed by lightning

http://www.wsbtv.com/weather/13980670/detail.html

ALPHARETTA -- A 15-year-old boy is dead after being struck by lightning while riding his bicycle.

Officers were called to a residential complex around 3 p.m. Sunday after a woman told dispatchers she saw someone get hit by lightning.

Kevin Avalar was found lying unconscious in a parking lot with his bicycle next to him, Officer George Gordon said.

"I saw him on his bike ride by and then the lightning hit right after," said witness Logan DeFreest.

"I thought he was long gone, but apparently he wasn't."

Other witnesses said the victim was trying to reach a gazebo for shelter.

Paramedics treated him at the scene.

The boy was taken to North Fulton Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Avelar was a freshman at Roswell High School.

Nationally, an average of 62 people are killed each year by lightning, with summer being the peak period, according to the National Weather Service. Georgia ranks fourth in the nation in lightning deaths.

...and no one was around that could perform CPR and buy him some time?

Too bad.

The odds of being struck by lightning are about the same odds you get in Las Vegas, but obviously, it does happen. Below are the guidelines I give to students in my backpacking classes:

Disperse members in your group so they are at least 50’ apart. This can help to prevent multiple casualties in the event of a strike.

Squat on a ground pad or pack full of clothes. This is where that internal frame pack with the plastic stays comes in hand. For aluminum external frames, you have a better bet with your ground pad.

Stay away from metallic objects. This means your metal pack frame!

Wrap your arms around your legs. This helps to bleed the current around your heart if you are struck.

Close your eyes.

Open your mouth. This may reduce eardrum damage due to the pressure shock.

...and the first aid is:

Perform rescue breathing is person is not breathing.

Perform CPR if victim is in cardiac arrest. Don’t count on CPR re-starting a heart. Try your best with CPR until help arrives. You need an AED FAST!

Check for two burned areas, where current entered the body and where it exited. Treat them both.

Check for broken bones.

Victim may have vision and hearing loss.

Victim may have ruptured eardrums.

Victim may be disoriented.

Victim may have neurological problems.

Sad. I have heard of cyclists being struck before and so now I am careful about lightning, even if it is a few miles away.

The national weather service (weather.gov) has a good discussion of lightning safety. It's well worth reading. Curiously, according to them, structures such as gazebos, carports, awnings, etc, provide no protection from lightning. Apparently, you need to be in a fully enclosed structure to gain protection.

freaky

Sad. I have heard of cyclists being struck before and so now I am careful about lightning, even if it is a few miles away.

That is wise. I recently watched a show about lightning strike. Lightning can travel over 10 miles from the cloud that originates it before going for the ground. And the part that hurts you is invisible. The lightning that you see is the lightning returning to the sky.

They gave a rule of 30, 30. Get shelter if the time between lightning and thunder is 30 seconds or less, and wait for 30 minutes after you last hear thunder.

Sadly, they also told of a doctor who was cycling and hit in the head by lightning from a cloud on the other side of a mountain range. He lived, but was initially disabled. He died 8 years later from complications from the strike after a long slow decay in his mental abilities.

My friend Bruce and I were chased by last Sat' storm from Purcelville to Leesburg with lightning strikes getting quicker by the moment. We weren't happy about it but got home ASAP! Luckily nothing happened to either of us.

It would seem women don't have as much to fear from lightning as men. The vast majority of lightning victims are men.

Below are the guidelines I give to students in my backpacking classes:

Wrap your arms around your legs.

Close your eyes.


Doesn't this make backpacking difficult?
Or at least comical.

It would seem women don't have as much to fear from lightning as men. The vast majority of lightning victims are men.

Likely an artifact of activity preferences.

I live pretty close to where this happened. That was one helluva lightning storm.
I had not heard of the boy being struck, and my prayers are with his family now.

from http://neptune.spacebears.com/opine/helmets.html

On a per-capita basis, the odds of being killed while riding a bicycle are nearly the same as the odds of being killed by a bolt of lightning

from http://neptune.spacebears.com/opine/helmets.html

On a per-capita basis, the odds of being killed while riding a bicycle are nearly the same as the odds of being killed by a bolt of lightning

Doesn't per capita include people who don't even ride bicycles?

is it like this:

Case1
Numerator = people killed by lightning
Denominator = population of US

Case2
Numerator = people killed by cycling
Denominator = population US

Maybe I'm mis-understanding something, but those two cases aren't apples to apples...unless you change denominator of case 2 to be "cyclists in US"

as the basis would relate to people who don't live near lightning strikes

I met a guy a while ago who claimed to have been struck by lightning on TWO occasions.

That's freaky or else he wasn't that swift. (if you know what I mean)