Danger to dock shooters and others

This story was on th Nashville Tennessee news. This happened on Tims Ford lake but the same danger is on every lake with docks...We have lost 3 lives on Tims Ford in the last few years. I have limited knowledge of electricity and electrical circuits but from what I understand is that if there is a problem with the circuit and the dock is electrified and you touch the dock while grounded to the water ie alum boat you could be killed......99% of the docks that are on this lake are floating docks so they are insulated from the water......Im sure that some on this board are very knowledgeable on this subject so please add comments ...It could save someone life....The two that died in another incident were swimming and touched a dock that the ground fault had be shorted by lightening. Even though these docks are wired to code when built it only takes one lightening strike to short the GFCI and present a danger....Sorry about the cut and paste but I think this is very important....


Body found underneath dock in Franklin County
Posted: Sep 28, 2012 6:33 PM CDT
WINCHESTER, Tenn. -

Investigators are working to determine the exact cause of death of an Alabama man whose body was found in Winchester, Tenn.

Police responded to the call on Thursday evening just before 7 p.m. when a woman reported 39-year-old William Nolan as missing.

The woman told police that Nolan, her son-in-law, was going swimming after he finished jogging. After an hour, the woman became concerned.

Investigators said the woman found Nolan's clothes on the dock but could not find him anywhere.

When authorities arrived, the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency and the Franklin County Rescue Squad located Nolan's body underneath the dock. His body was then transported to Harton Medical Center in Tullahoma where he was pronounced dead.

Law enforcement personnel did discover that the house in question had been struck by lightning in the recent past. An investigation did show faulty wiring from the house to the dock causing the area to be live with electricity.

Nolan's body was transported to Nashville for an ordered autopsy by the state medical examiner to determine the specific cause of death

If the GFCI circuit is shorted or trips, I thought that outlet and any outlets past the GFCI would not be "live"? True or not ??

Is sounds like the lightening is shorting the GFCI making a straight circuit with no protection.........I just know that 3 have been electrocuted here due to something.....Im sure someone cant enlighten us.....

All docks should have an extra ground run to land and a 8 foot ground rod in the ground, that would trip the breaker at the house if anything went wrong at the dock. But I know that want happen!

We went fishing docks for a couple hours this morning and looked at some of the wiring on some docks...Saw one that the insulation was damaged by the sun and close to getting a bare spot......I have seen lightening come in on power line and go across an open breaker and fry a welder so it can do some weird stuff....Yes it was my best welder......

I had a gfi which supported my basement wiring.the gfi was a plug in type,rain had tripped it several times,had to reset it about six times.after that the gfi failed HOT.never tripped again,stayed hot even if the rain would run down and soak it.BEWARE OF THE GFI.