Edgewater teen walks into downed power line and survives

EDGEWATER, Md. - It's an accident that could kill you, but somehow an Edgewater teenager that ran dead into an active power pole and wires survived.  Dylan Luiza is back at home after two nights at Bayview.  He talked about his recovery in a story you’ll see only on ABC2.

Considering what he's been through, 19-year-old Dylan Luiza has very few complaints.  He says, "I can tell you I'm lucky to be alive."

And that's no exaggeration.  The McDaniel lacrosse player could have been killed in a freak accident following Friday's storms.  When we asked him to recall what happened, he said, "Once I gained consciousness, I was like, ‘Holy crap! What did I hit?’"

Luiza had struck a fully active power pole and its wires, which as a result of the storm, he says, were strung waist-high like a fence across a field off South River Clubhouse Road.  While walking with friends Saturday night in the dark, Dylan hit those dead on.  He recalls, "I got knocked backwards.  My hat flew off my head and from that point they say I went unconscious for about 10-20 seconds."

Friends captured a photo of that hat among the wires the next morning, along with two casualties of the power line.  Next to his hat lay two dead deer, tangled among the lines.  Dylan’s mom, Karen Luiza, says it was a tough photo to see, "The killer for me was the deer picture where you could see the power lines down with two dead deer in front of it and my son’s hat in the middle.  That was a telling picture."

Dylan’s injuries are also telling.  He spent two nights at the burn center at Bayview, with severe third degree burns on his thigh and his feet, where the surging electricity left his body.  The ordeal is tough for him to talk about.  Dylan says, "It's hard to think back to it, but when I do I just don't see how it happened to me and it's kind of hard to take in."

Now it’s time for Luiza to take on rest and recovery.  It’s a new, unexpected job for the teenager who looked forward to spending the summer as a lifeguard.  But again, his family isn’t complaining.  Karen Luiza says, "Considering what happened, he's pretty lucky."

BGE confirms they have repaired the lines and the power pole.  But their rep says they can’t talk specifics about this case.