By Samantha Lock
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A teenage girl has died after being electrocuted when the car she was driving collided with a fallen power line and caught fire in Florida.
The 17-year-old was driving in the Spring Hill neighborhood in Hernando County around 12:15 p.m. on Sunday when she collided with a power line that had been struck by a felled tree during a storm.
The collision ignited a fire along the driver's side, prompting the girl to attempt to flee the Dodge Avenger from the passenger side.
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However, as she was exiting the car, she stepped on a fallen active power line on Evenglow Avenue near Hyacinth Lane, Florida Highway Patrol troopers said.
The teenager was electrocuted and pronounced dead at the scene.
Hernando County Sheriff's Office deputies along with Hernando County Fire and Emergency Services and power company officials arrived on the scene, declaring an active fire with energized lines on the ground and closing the road to traffic.
One witness said they watched the incident unfold from outside their home.
"The father had come over to our area and yelled 'that's my daughter in the car,'" Maria Patchon told ABC Action News. "I actually was out of my vehicle grabbing my umbrella ... I looked over. I saw that car coming down the road. You could see the whole driver's side was engulfed.
"Even when the police arrived, they couldn't get out of the vehicle because the power was still live... so, it was devastating to watch."
Newsweek has contacted Florida Highway Patrol and Hernando County Fire & Emergency Services for comment.
Storms and wild weather lashed parts of Florida over the weekend, prompting severe weather warnings from authorities.
The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for parts of the Florida Panhandle on Saturday, including for Panama City, Lynn Haven and Callaway.
By Sunday morning, the NWS had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for parts of Central Florida. The warning said "a couple of tornados" could possibly hit the region and scattered gusts of up to 75 miles per hour were likely, with possible hail up to the size of ping pong balls.
Many Floridians took to social media to share videos of the wild weather, including the moment a waterspout loomed over Panama City Beach.
On Saturday morning, Kerry Wright shared a video, showing her view of a large funnel cloud moving across the Gulf of Mexico and towards the shore.
Roaring winds can be heard in the clip, captured from a vacation rental on Thomas Drive along Panama City Beach.
Meteorologist Spinks Megginson also shared a striking shot of a waterspout moving towards the shore over the Gulf of Mexico on Twitter.
"Waterspout (technically a tornado over the northern Gulf driven by a parent mesocyclone) near Panama City, FL earlier," Megginson wrote alongside the image, which was captured by a local.
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