Teen Killed In Hernando County Accident

Fox Channel 35 Orlando News reported recently that a motor vehicle accident on Sunday, April 11, 2021 in Hernando County led to the death of a local high school student when she was tragically electrocuted by a live power line while trying to escape her burning car during a severe thunderstorm.

According to officials from the Florida Highway Patrol, the incident occurred on Evenglow Avenue near Hyacinth Lane on Sunday during severe thunderstorms that wracked the entire Tampa Bay area throughout the day. The young teen, a Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) cadet lieutenant at Central High School who was seventeen years of age, was driving north on Evenglow Avenue when her car ran into a downed power line that had been damaged by a falling tree during the intense thunderstorm. The car caught fire along its driver’s side and the victim attempted to escape via the passenger door, but stepped on the downed line, electrocuting her. She was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

Her friends and instructors remembered her as a competent, accomplished natural leader who served as a mentor to others in the JROTC program and who was due to graduate this spring and attend Pasco-Hernando State College in the fall.