Unwitnessed Dual Fatality in a Rural Setting: A Case of Lightning-induced Electrocution
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48165/jfmt.2026.43.03.22Keywords:
Lightning fatalities, unwitnessed, hypothesise, scene reconstructionAbstract
Lightning-related fatalities constitute a significant proportion of weather-associated deaths, particularly in rural and agricultural settings. These incidents often occur unwitnessed, and the absence of pathognomonic external injuries may challenge medico legal evaluation. Two farmers were found dead during a thunderstorm while sheltering in a single-storeyed structure. They were wet, barefoot, lying dead side by side. The scene of incident was hypothesised with their attempt to fix a plastic sheet to iron plates above a window with a metallic grill to block wind-driven rain. After visiting the scene of incident, eyewitness accounts regarding thunderstorm activity, autopsy findings along with other corroborative evidences helped us to reconstruct the scene and hypothesise it as a death due to accidental electrocution by a lightning induced arc.
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