While attempting to alert fellow beachgoers of an impending storm, a man was struck by lightning on a New Jersey beach on Sunday and died as a result, according to authorities.
According to Police Sgt. Andrew Casole on Wednesday, Patrick Dispoto, 59, was at Seaside Park Beach with his girlfriend when they noticed a storm was coming. They then went back to his truck.
According to his girlfriend’s account to the police, she waited in the truck as Dispoto returned to the beach to alert others to the impending storm.
Ruth Fussell, who claimed to be Dispoto’s girlfriend, told WABC, “He said, ‘I’ll be right back.’ I said, ‘You have no business going back.’ And he says, ‘I’m just going to warn these kids because the sky is going to open. I’m just going to warn these kids – one minute.’ I said, ‘No.'”
Fussell claimed that after phoning Dispoto three times without getting a response, she had to wait fifteen minutes for him to come back. After a while, she returned to the shore and discovered Dispoto unconscious.
Dispoto was given CPR by emergency personnel, and after being transported to a hospital, authorities claimed he was eventually declared dead. According to Casole, Dispoto passed away in a “accidental death caused by lightning strike.”
Seaside Park erected a lightning warning system a few days after Dispoto passed away.
According to Seaside Park Borough Administrator Karen Kroon, the Strike Guard Lightning Detection System was acquired by the city in April, requiring an expenditure of close to fifty thousand dollars.
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According to the company website, the system monitors cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within a user-specified radius of up to 20 miles in order to deliver lightning warnings.
The installation, according to Kroon, had been planned for several months and was set to happen on Wednesday. Kroon made it clear that the installation had nothing to do with Sunday’s tragedy.
“The Borough made that investment because public safety is extremely important and we want to do everything we can to alert our residents and visitors to imminent danger,” Kroon stated.
This is the first lightning-related death in New Jersey since a lifeguard was struck and killed on a beach in South Seaside Park in 2021, according to the National Lightning Safety Council.
This is the third lightning-related death in the United States this year. Of the sixteen lightning-related deaths in New Jersey since 2006, five occurred on beaches.
“So, his last act of heroism was his ultimate, and that’s my Patrick Dispoto,” Fussell stated.
