Safety should be everyone?s top priority

This column has been written before.

Maybe not in the exact same words, but the idea has been put down many times prior to today.

I know, for a fact, that it?s even been expressed in this very paper, in this very space, no more than a couple of summers ago ? and perhaps even more recently than that.

But, obviously, some people missed it last time. And it?s a subject that bears repeating.

The subject is lightning ? electricity from the sky that can, and often does, kill people. More to the point, the subject is lightning and the casual attitude taken toward it by some people when it comes to deciding whether or not to play a summer league ballgame.

As recently as this week, lightning storms popped up suddenly in our area around the time the evening?s games were scheduled to begin.

That wasn?t surprising, since in this part of the country the weather is always rather unpredictable. Storms come up quickly, and they go away just as quickly.

But after the rain died down, a quick trip around some area ball fields led to the startling ? yet unsurprising ? discovery of grown men and women standing around with their children, waiting to see if they would be able to play their games or not while lightning flashed on every horizon.

Some people were sane enough to play this waiting game from their vehicles ? one of the safest places to take shelter, according to the National Lightning Safety Institute.

But on other fields, there they were: Groups of adults, watching the gray, electricity-filled skies, while teams of children ran around the infield waiting for someone to either send them home or to yell ?play ball.?

Put bluntly, people, you?re flirting with disaster.

I feel like a third-grade teacher repeating all this, but just in case you missed that day of grammar school, in open fields and near fences are two places you should not be if lightning?s around. And for the love of all that?s holy, if you do leave the field in a storm, don?t huddle around a tree!

A couple of weeks back, on another stormy afternoon, I ran into the father of a player in one of the county leagues. His son was still in full uniform from the day?s action, and even though I didn?t know the man, I asked ?did they play today with all this lightning around??

?My boy didn?t,? he replied. ?We stayed in the car hoping it would slack up, but the rest of them were right out there in the storm, with lightning popping all over the place. So me and my boy came on back home.?

So at least one person out there is thinking about safety when it comes to thunderstorms.

What?s it going to take? Is a coach ? or, heaven forbid, a child ? going to have to actually be struck by lightning and killed before everyone learns that this kind of weather is dangerous?

I?d hate to imagine people being so ignorant, or being so concerned about a meaningless ballgame, that they?d even consider putting their kids in harm?s way. But it?s looking more and more like on some fields, on some nights, that?s exactly the case.

So far, thankfully, we?ve been lucky around here. But if people don?t wise up and start playing it safe, one summer evening tragedy is going to strike.