Man dies after being electrocuted while jumping into Georgia’s Lake Lanier

A man died after apparently being electrocuted when he jumped off a dock into Georgia’s largest lake on Thursday, authorities said. The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office identified the victim as 24-year-old Thomas Milner.

On Thursday, at about 5:30 p.m., deputies responded to a reported drowning in Lake Lanier in Cumming, Georgia. Milner was heard screaming for help shortly after going into the water from his family’s dock, officials said.

A family friend tried to use a ladder to get Milner out of the water but was unsuccessful, the sheriff’s department said, so neighbors then took a boat over to Milner and one of them jumped into the water to help him.

“That person described a burning sensation he recognized as an electric shock,” the sheriff’s department said. “He swam ashore, turned off the power box and re-entered the water ultimately pulling [Milner] onto the dock.”

Milner’s uncle administered CPR until medics arrived, but Milner died the next day at a local hospital, officials say.

Electric shock drowning is a “silent killer” that can occur when electrical current leaks into the water, causing a swimmer to become incapacitated, according to the Electric Shock Drowning Prevention Association. There is no official tally of electric shock drownings because unless there is a witness to report the shock in the water, the victim’s death is typically labeled a common drowning, the association says.  

In 2016, a 15-year-old girl died from electric shock drowning off a dock in Alabama’s Lake Tuscaloosa, after a metal ladder apparently conducted electricity from a flooded light switch. The following year, two women died from electric shock drownings in that lake.

“There is no visible warning or way to tell if water surrounding a boat, marina or dock is energized or within seconds will become energized with fatal levels of electricity,” the group says.

Lake Lanier, about 50 minutes northeast of Atlanta, has almost 700 miles of shoreline, and its website touts it as “the most popular lake” in the Southeast.