Teenager Dies After Jumping into Electrified Lake

(IntegrityTimes.com) – A teenager in Colorado has died after reportedly jumping into an electrified lake. Jesse Hamric attended a Fourth of July gathering with family and friends at a private residence with a dock at Smith Mountain Lake, Huddleston.

Two of the 18-year-old’s friends saw him struggling in the waters and attempted to dive in to save him, but they felt an electric shock. Eventually they managed to pull Hamric from the lake before performing CPR, but the teenager later died at a nearby hospital after the incident on July 4.

The death raised safety concerns about stray voltage at the lake. The two individuals who jumped into the lake to help Hamric were treated and released. The teenager’s exact cause of death will be determined after an autopsy by the medical examiner, but he is suspected to have died of electrocution and drowning.

Neil Harrington, who is a retired volunteer with the local fire department, told reporters that the lake had long suffered from issues with stray voltage. Harrington said he first knew about stray voltage at the site in 2017. When he looked into it with an electrician, a lawyer and a physicist, he discovered stray voltage at nearly all of the lake’s residential docks that he tested.

Harrington stated that the stray voltage was specifically linked to metal parts in the boat lifts on the docks. Stray voltage occurs when a person enters the water and completes the electrical circuit by touching a grounded item such as a handrail. Faulty wiring on the boats or docks can result in the release of energy into the lake.

Steamboat Springs High School, which Hamric recently graduated from, released a statement saying that its staff were “deeply saddened” by the teenager’s death and that its thoughts were with all of its students. The high school provided mental health counseling to faculty and students the day after the tragedy.

A friend of Hamric’s, Alex Schwab, who knew the teenager for three years expressed his disbelief following the incident. He described Hamric as “one of a kind” and commented on how skilled he was at snowboarding. He told reporters that he was still processing his friend’s death.

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