NY girl dies of electrocution while playing mini golf at Florida resort

A young girl vacationing with her family at a resort near Orlando has died after being electrocuted while attempting to retrieve her ball from a pond at miniature golf facility. Heroic bystander also injured trying to save her.

11-year-old Ashton Jojo, of Latham, NY, died of electrocution Wednesday afternoon after stepping into a small concrete pond at a mini-golf course to retrieve her errant ball.

The incident occurred about 2 p.m. at Orange Lake Resort’s miniature golf facility in Kissimmee, FL, a timeshare where Jojo was staying with her parents and brother for vacation, reports The New York Daily News.

According to Reuters, Jojo screamed when she stepped into the pond. Christopher Burges, a tourist from Alabama, rushed over and tried to save her but also suffered injury.

Emergency services transported Jojo to Florida Hospital Celebration Health, where she later died. The Orange County Medical Examiner found her cause of death to be electrocution.

“Orange Lake Resort holds the safety and well-being of our guests and employees as our top priority and concern,” the resort said in a statement to the Orlando Sentinel. “The miniature golf facility where the incident happened is closed and will not re-open until further notice. Our thoughts and prayers are with the guests, their families and friends during this time.”

Code enforcement officers inspected the mini-golf course pond where the incident occurred and found improper electrical wiring of the pond’s pump. The pump was connected to a non-GFCI breaker, instead of a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) breaker as required. A GFCI breaker is designed to shut off the flow of electricity if it detects a ground fault, protecting people from severe or fatal electric shocks.