That’s what happened Friday, according to Paul Levy..
Today, as storms approached and lightning and thunder were clearly in close range, the coaches of our boys and girls teams kept practicing with the children.
via Universal Hub, which also has an item about the Riverside T being down again.
Greg asks
Playing soccer.
This is a trick question, right?
Daughter of Sean and I were there. I’m not sure the weather met the first half of the test, but I’ll be paying closer attention in the future.
@Sean: Actually I asked “why” not “what” but carry on.
Right after I saw this on twitter, there was another tweet about a grandfather being killed on a soccer field in NJ at around the same time. Scary quote from the article:
Here’s the entire article: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/lightning-strike-new-jersey-demarest–168983036.html
I’ve been coaching youth sports for 35 years. Started way before I had kids of my own. I have never allowed a team of mine to stay on the field after hearing thunder. Not during a practice. Not during a game. Never! I don’t care how far away the thunder seems. I don’t care about the “30/30 rule.” A youth coach must put safety first. NYS and NGS need to do a better job of driving this point home to their coaches.
Interesting quiz on lightning that Paul Levy links to. I still don’t know an amp from a volt, but the important info was that it’s not a mile away per second of time between the flash and the boom, it’s a mile per five seconds, so the lightning is closer than you probably think, and there’s a kind of lightning that can hit from very far away, so if you’re close enough to hear the thunder, you’re close enough to be struck.
Why were Newton kids on the soccer field as lightning and thunder approached?
Clueless adults
About four years ago I was out for a walk and passing Cold Springs Park as the sky turned threatening. Looking towards two Newton Girls Soccer games on the fields, I saw a lightning bolt flash to the South of the park. I went to the games and yelled to the coaches and the youth ref that I had seen lightning, expecting that they would react in the appropriate way. It took a while for them to acknowledge me, I think they mistook me for a wild eyed evangelical yelling about lighting and the judgement day is upon us, or preferably Burt Lancaster in “the Rainmaker” but they didn’t take me seriously. I was amazed that these parents thought it was fine to continue two games with loads of kids and parents in the middle of a wide open field with a lightning storm in the vicinity. One coach/father actually said he plays golf in these storms and it’s safe. I tried to explain that leaving the field was not only was it NGS policy, but the practice of anyone with a wit of sense! They ignored me as a crazy old crank and continued to play. I had no cell and the coaches wouldn’t or couldn’t call league officials. I got home and sent a message to the board of NGS, they responded that they would reinforce the rule to the coaches.
As we’ve seen, some people don’t get the message, and don’t have a wit of sense.
P.S. I later found out that the storm I saw to the South had unleashed a barrage of lightning striking close to the Oak Hills fields, forcing the cancellation of the games on those fields.
Take the guess work out of it. Get lightening detectors.
Area golf courses have them, and they are certainly annoying when the go off in the middle of your round, but they do work. And they also sound an all-clear when the storm cell has passed out of range. Portable units are under $1000.
Next step is planning. Where do you go for shelter when the alarm sounds? That needs to be assessed for each field location and communicated clearly to each responsible adult supervising the activity.
Whether these are youth or school games or practices, the coaches have enough to think about without having to make a judgement call about the weather. This should be automatic. Hear the horn, take shelter.
Max,
All good, but let’s start with the basics that the adults in Paul Levy’s (and my) story missed:
Hear thunder or see lightning, get out of the open.
Pretty simple.