Man Electrocuted to Death After Jumping into Georgia's Lake Lanier
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Electric shock drowning can occur when electrical current seeps into the surrounding waters, rendering a swimmer incapacitated.
Authorities say a 24-year-old man was apparently electrocuted to death Thursday after jumping off a dock into Lake Lanier, Georgia's largest.
The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office identified the victim as Thomas Milner.
Deputies responded Thursday around 5:30 pm to a reported drowning in Lake Lanier in Cumming, Georgia.
Milner was heard yelling for help shortly after going into the water from his family's dock, authorities said.
A family friend tried to use a ladder to lift Milner out of the water but was unsuccessful, so neighbors took a boat to the man and one of them jumped into the water to help him, according to the sheriff's department.
“That person described a burning sensation that he recognized as an electric shock. He swam to shore, turned off the power box, and re-entered the water eventually dragging [Milner] to the dock,” authorities stated.
Milner's uncle administered CPR until doctors arrived, but the young man died the next day at a local hospital, authorities say.
Drowning by electrical shock can occur when electrical current seeps into the surrounding waters, rendering a swimmer incapacitated, according to the Electrical Shock Drowning Prevention Association, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and educating people about the risks of electric shock in water.
There is no official count of drownings from electric shock because, unless there is a witness to report the shock in the water, the victim's death is usually classified as a common drowning, the association says.
In 2016, a 15-year-old girl drowned from an electrical shock on a pier on Alabama's Lake Tuscaloosa, after a metal ladder apparently conducted electricity from a flooded light switch. The following year, two women drowned from electrical shock in that same lake.
“There is no visible warning or way to tell if the water around a boat, marina or dock is energized. or within seconds it will be energized with fatal levels of electricity,” the group says.
Lake Lanier, about 50 minutes northeast of Atlanta, has almost 700 miles of shoreline and is touted on its website as “the most popular lake” in the Southeast.