People Electrocuted Outside Metro Bus

August 22, 2007 – Madison, WI
Three people were electrocuted at a Madison Metro bus stop on the city's North Side when lightening struck a 4,000-volt distribution line causing it to break and fall into a large puddle. The strike happened just as Lakisha Dancy’s bus had arrived. Dancy stepped into the puddle while holding her two year old daughter and both were likely killed instantly. Demetrius Dobbs, who was a passenger on the bus and a friend of Dancy’s, was electrocuted when he jumped off to try to help.

Also injured were Dancy’s 7 year old son and the Madison Metro bus driver. The driver was also trying to come to the aid of the victims but he was shocked and fell back into the bus. He then closed the doors so no one else would step out into the water.

The accident happened around 4:15 p.m. on Sherman Avenue just south of Northport Drive during a heavy downpour that dropped 2.2 inches of rain between 3:45 and 4:45 causing the water to rise as high as the bus's bumper.

The firefighter crew of Ladder Company No. 1 who had been headed to another call (that turned out to be a false alarm) when they saw the victims on the sidewalk had to wait for MGE personnel to arrive before providing help because of the possibility the wire was still live and it was too dangerous to approach the victims. The utility's protocol dictates its workers must physically move a line before rescuers can approach a scene.

There were a couple of situations in which others had entered the water to try to help and were actually pulled back. It was thanks to some intervention by some people at the scene that those additional people were brought to safety.

Jamie McGee, Dobbs fiancée and also a friend of Dancy’s, was witness to the deaths. "She stepped off the grass into the water and she fell". "We thought that she tripped." Dobbs immediately jumped off the bus to help. "When Demetrius stepped off the bus, he was screaming and he was shrieking and he fell" McGee said the victim's bodies were burned and smoking. "I watched them die, and Malik watched his mother and sister die".

Lakisha M. Dancy 28
Maya Reese 2
Demetrius R. Dobbs 22
Malik Chandler 7