A young football player died 'almost instantly' after he was electrocuted, an inquest heard.
Luke Bennett, 17, was holding a pole over his head when he was struck by 11,000 volts after the metal touched, or make close contact to, an overhead power line. He was playing football with his mates at Euxton Villa FC's pitch in Chorley at the time of the accident, LancsLive reports.
Hid dad Thomas Bennett weeped at the inquest into his son's death as he recalled dropping him off as usual on Saturday March 6, 2021 to go and play football with seven of his pals.
The inquest in Preston, heard how at around 6pm three of the boys - Luke, Lewis Geszke and Ben Wilcock - began 'messing about' with a metal pole used to separate the subs bench from the pitch.
Suddenly, a huge current surged through the pole and threw all three of them to the ground.
Luke, who played for AFC Fylde's youth team, initially stood up after the shock but his pals watched on in horror as he again collapsed to the ground.
Lewis and Ben were also unconscious for a short period after the incident before they woke up to see CPR being performed on tragic Luke.
Sadly, Luke's heart had 'completely stopped' and he was pronounced dead at around 6.48pm, despite the efforts of paramedics and a doctor.
The inquest, which began on Tuesday (May 23) and is due to conclude today, heard that Luke's heart had been damaged to such an extent he had little chance of surviving.
His friends were warned not to touch him until emergency services arrived.
At the outset, Luke's dad bravely took to the stand to describe his son, and explained how he had spent time at the academies at Blackburn Rovers, Burnley FC and Preston North End before playing for AFC Fylde as a winger.
"He was very much the life and soul," Mr Bennett told Area Coroner Kate Bisset.
"His personality was really quite infectious. He was very out-going and was riding a bike before you were supposed to. He just got on with things."
Mr Bennett, a former professional footballer for Wolverhampton Wanderers, described how his son only got into football at the age of 13 but immediately showed promise - and also shone at other sports including tennis, trampolining and swimming.
"It was amazing how he could do something without any real practice, he was that kind of lad," Mr Bennett said. "He just seemed to excel at pretty much all sports. He played at Blackburn for a bit, then he signed for Burnley and also at Preston.
"He came through the academy system a bit later than most, when he was 13 or 14, so his learning curve was very steep. He ended up finding a place at AFC Fylde at 16 and he loved it. He was a winger but as long as he could score goals and be at the centre of the action he was happy."
The dad described the run-up to the tragic day two years ago.
Mr Bennett "He always asked us to take him to a friend's house or to play football somewhere at Buckshaw or Euxton."
"I said I'd take him and pick him up. I dropped him off, up the drive, which I've done dozens of times."
The coroner asked how he and his wife, along with Luke's older brother Dylan, had been coping since his death.
"Day by day," he replied as he began to cry. "It hasn't been easy."
The inquest is set to conclude today.
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