Football club’s ‘regret’ at tragic death of talented teenager electrocuted on pitch

The football club where a teenage boy died after being electrocuted by overhead power lines has said his death is “a matter of the sincerest regret”.

Luke Bennett had gone to Euxton Villa FC on the afternoon of Saturday March 6, 2021, with seven of his friends for a kickabout. Although the pitches weren’t open to the public and the boys were asked to leave after finishing their game, they stayed for most of the afternoon.

At around 6pm Luke and two other boys; Lewis Geszke and Ben Wilcock, began “messing about” with a 7.3-metre long pole used to hold down the nets of the goal. As they raised the heavy pole to an upright position it touched overhead power lines carrying 11,000 volts.

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All three teenagers “dropped to the ground” and while Luke initially got up he immediately collapsed to the floor. The other two boys were initially knocked out but later regained consciousness.

One of Luke’s friends called 999 but due to the call handler misunderstanding the location, and failing to use a system option to pinpoint the location of the phone making the call, it was around 20 minutes before paramedics arrived on the scene. The call handler had advised the boys not to touch Luke and so the “10-minute window” for commencing CPR was missed.

When paramedics attached a defibrillator to Luke they found that his heart had “completely stopped”. After attempting to resuscitate him for around half an hour the decision was taken to stop CPR and Luke, 17, was pronounced dead at the scene.

At an inquest held this week Area Coroner Kate Bisset ruled that the errors in identifying Luke’s location, by the North West Ambulance Service, contributed to his death. She found that, had the correct address been identified, Luke, from Chorley, would have survived and she also said the call handler should have been able to ascertain that, as the pole was no longer touching the power lines, it was safe for the boys to carry out CPR.

The inquest heard that Luke was a talented and gifted footballer who had worked his way through the academy system at Blackburn, Burnley and Preston. He was playing for AFC Fylde at the time of his death and was described by his dad Tom as an outgoing lad with an infectious personality.

Luke’s parents had raised concerns, through their barrister Sophie Allan, about the metal pole being left unattended at the football pitch. The coroner ruled that it would not have been “reasonably foreseeable” for the club to have considered the pole a hazard given its purpose as well as its weight.

The club’s chairman, Graham Keyte, said there had never been any incidents involving the metal pole, which is considerably heavy and requires two men to carry it horizontally, and that he “never foresaw” it being misused as it was on the day Luke died. The pole has since been cut up and is no longer used.

At the end of the two-day inquest the coroner returned a narrative conclusion in which she said: “I am satisfied that it would have been reasonable [for the NWAS call handler] to utilise the find my phone button to ascertain the correct address. The correct address should have been identified which would affect the ambulance crews and I am satisfied that if the ambulance service had attended the correct address it is more likely than not that Luke would have survived.”

In a statement issued via the club’s solicitors after the conclusion of the inquest Euxton Villa FC said: “Luke’s tragic passing in March 2021 was and remains a matter of the sincerest regret to all of us at Euxton Villa Football Club.

“The club is aware that Luke was a talented and popular member of the football community. We have worked with the coroner throughout the inquest process and Luke’s family and friends continue to be in our thoughts.”

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