‘I thought I could easily be electrocuted’: Man says downed line wrapped around his neck
Mark Sunderland says a downed line on an Orlando Street wrapped around his neck and pulled him off his Vespa.
By Hayley Crombleholme
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ORLANDO, Florida (WESH) — An Orange County man claims a downed line on an Orlando Street wrapped around his neck and pulled him off his Vespa.
Mark Sunderland says it happened late at night on June 24. He was riding down the street, heading home on his Vespa. He said he noticed parts of a downed tree in the road.
“As soon as I noticed it, it was like a split second,” Sunderland said. “That’s when I felt the cable around my neck. And then felt the friction, it was spooling.”
The thought that was going through his head, he said, “I thought I could easily be electrocuted.”
Sunderland said he doesn’t actually know what kind of line it was, but it wasn’t electrified. He said he tried to hit the brakes as fast as he could.
“But eventually it pulled me off the bike, and it hit my leg,” Sunderland said.
When WESH spoke with Sunderland over a week later, his leg was still swollen. There was a prominent rash of red circling his neck.
Photos from the night it happened show first responders circling Sunderland. He said he’s not insured. So, he skipped the ambulance ride and took himself to the hospital.
“I got an X-ray and a sonogram,” he said.
Sunderland said he doesn’t believe it was a power line that took him out. He thinks a rotten tree took down multiple types of lines on the street.
Sunderland said he has hired an attorney who’s trying to come to an agreement with the owner of the property he said the tree was on.
“It was obviously rotten,” he said. “Could have been somebody walking under it, it’s right over a sidewalk.
Sunderland said his neck is healing, but his leg is a blood clot concern. He said the mental toll may be the worst of it.
“This was emotionally much more traumatic than it was physically, as it turns out. I really felt like I came close to dying,” he said.
WESH made attempts to reach the owner of the property, Sunderland alleges the tree was on for comment. We have not heard back.
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