A 17 year old boy is died yesterday afternoon – May 18th – in the countryside of Santeramo in Colle nel Bari after having been hit from a lightning. The victim was engaged in grazing activities together with his father when he was surprised by a violent storm during which he was hit by a powerful electric discharge that made him fall to the ground. It seems that the boy managed to get up but he died shortly after due to cardiac arrest.
The young man, Giuseppe Cacciapaglia, was in the countryside with his father when he was hit. It seems that the 17-year-old had an umbrella with him to protect himself from the rain, while he and his father were busy grazing on a farm, when suddenly the lightning hit the boy head-on, causing him to fall to the ground.
Perhaps the umbrella used to avoid getting wet was the cause of the fatal accident, having functioned as a lightning rod, attracting the deadly electric discharge. According to an initial reconstruction of the facts, however, the 17-year-old, after being hit, managed to get up only to then collapse senseless to the ground again. The emergency services were called immediately, and they intervened quickly at the scene of the accident in the town in the province of Bari. But there was nothing that could be done for the young man, despite all the resuscitation attempts by the 118 health workers who arrived. on site in an ambulance. The young man did not make it and the operators were forced to confirm Giuseppe’s death, probably due to cardiac arrest. The Carabinieri of the local station also intervened on site for the ritual investigations, aimed at ascertaining that there is no responsibility for what happened, and that unfortunately it was only a tragic fatality impossible to predict.
The community
The whole country was in shock when the news began to circulate, after all we are talking about a young 17 year old boy who lost his life, victim of an absurd and mocking fate. The bitterness remains for an episode that no one could have imagined happening. Yesterday afternoon, the rain hit the Bari area, as expected and also warned by the Civil Protection through a special weather alert message, but no one could have expected the violent storm that hit several municipalities. A rain that arrived suddenly and created various inconveniences in many municipalities in the hinterland. It is not known at the moment whether when Giuseppe and his father went out they were aware of the imminent arrival of the storm, the fact is that the 17 year old had an umbrella with him, but he certainly could never have imagined what then happened. The outing into the countryside, on the other hand, may have been linked to the arrival of the rain and the need to return the animals to keep them safe from the bad weather. A necessity considered a priority at that moment by Giuseppe and his father, who didn’t think twice before worrying about the livestock. It certainly never occurred to either of them that a simple gesture considered harmless could turn into a tragedy like the one that occurred. Giuseppe Cacciapaglia was in his third year at the “Nervi-Galilei” technical and technological institute in Altamura and his school was among the first to spread a message of condolence for this immeasurable loss for the entire community. «Our school community – we read in a note published via social media by the institute – is deeply shocked following a tragic accident which occurred, this afternoon, in Santeramo, to one of our students, Cacciapaglia of 3aitel (the wording of the course which attended school) died electrocuted after being struck by lightning”. A message accompanied by an image of Giuseppe playing football and the phrase: «Giuseppe you will live forever in our hearts». And among the comments emerges the inability to add anything else to an unexpected and inexplicable tragedy.
