Struck By Lightening in Your Car?

Driving to a friend's house on a island last weekend a bolt flew over the top of my car & lit me up like a nuclear explosion at ground zero. I felt a blast come through the half open windows as I was blinded by white light. I must surely be dead I instantly thought. I breathed & therefore knew I was not. My ears are still ringing. I hear it at night when I go to bed. Close calls anyone?

 

Wow thats something else, I have never had a close call but i kid I went ot school with was struck by lightning in 8th grade, he was in a coma for 2 weeks then came out. He showed me the shoes and hat he was wearing and they each had a big hole in them that was black around the edges. Your very lucky to even be alive, the ear ringing (annoying as it probablyis) is nothing compared to what could have happend though!

 

» Odds of being killed by lightening - 1 in 2 million.

» Odds of being killed by a dog - 1 in 700,000.

» Odds of dying while in the bath tub - 1 in 1 million.

» Odds of being killed by space debris - 1 in 5 billion.

» Odds of being killed by poisoning - 1 in 86,000.

» Odds of being killed by freezing - 1 in 3 million.

» Odds of being killed in a car crash - 1 in 5,000.

» Odds of being killed in a tornado - 1 in 2 million.

» Odds of being killed by falling out of bed - 1 in 2 million.

» Odds of being killed in a plane crash -1 in 25 million.

 

So the theory in Dumb and Dumber saying that you have more chance of dying on the way to the airport rather then on the plane is true.....pretty intresting stuff BTW.

 

don't mean to sound silly but one should be ok getting hit in a car, no? no close circuit when the 4 tires touch ground only?

 

I had a tornado cross in front of me back in 2000, the car listed at bit then settled. I was very lucky I wasn't closer to it.

 

Never been hit by Lightning myself, but I was at an Autocross a few years ago and a parked older Porsche 911 took a direct hit! The antenna was "melted" half way down and all four tires exploded! It smelled like a massive "burn out" the rest of the day. The radio was also blown, but everything else in the car was OK.

PS: I read an article about a new study on Lightning the other day and it stated: "the chance of getting struck by lightning (not killed per say) was 1 in 700,000 in a year". But, "the chance of getting struck in your entire lifetime is only 1 in 3000" ! ! !

Later,
Flash

 

Nope. It's the shape of a car the voltage travels in a circle around the passenger compartment, (Not so in a rag top) converting elc. into magnetic a la an electro magnet and usually not killing you. Now Golfer's are something else. Due to the poli golfclothes which burn very nicely all that's often left are the leather soles of the shoes.
Karen glad you're still with us. Did the giant magnetic field kill your watch?

 

all of these depends on where you live more chance of choking on a hamburger in the usa than anywhere else in the world

 

Glad you are with us, and type about the incident.

Did the struck affect anything to your car?

 

My father was struck through a water fountain when he was in high school. It knocked him across the room, and he was out of it a little out of it, but other than that he was OK. Glad you are OK.

Craig

 

Karen glad you’re okay.

I knew a man who once said, "death smiles at us all; all a man can do is smile back." Gladiator.

According to the stats, since there are about 6 billion people in the world…

3,000 killed by lightning.

8,571 killed by a dog.

6,000 die while in the bathtub.

1 killed by space debris.

69,767 killed by poisoning.

2,000 killed by freezing.

1,200,000 killed in a car crash.

3,000 killed in a tornado.

3,000 killed by falling out of bed.

240 killed in a plane crash.

I’m glad Karen wasn’t one of the 3,000!

 

Sitting in a car, even if it's a soft top, is pretty safe as one can see in the picture I've linked to.

http://medlem.spray.se/fulahus/clk_cab_lightning.jpg

 

Thanks for sharing - that's amazing to see!

PS: This was my Independence Post: #1776! 3 days too early, but close.

 

Living through rainy season here in Fla. now. We see lightning stroms every evening. Everyday I wonder if the rubber on the tires would ground me..

I guess not.

 

I belive that the phenomenon is called a "Farraday Cage". There's a good demo that they do at the Boston Museum of Science with a big Van De Graff generator (lightning machine). The operator gets into a big metal birdcage that then gets zapped with 1.2 million volts or so and he is perfectly fine. If I recall correctly, the tires on your car would have to be something like a half mile thick if you're going to rely on the isolation of the rubber to prevent the current from going through you into the ground.

Never realized it worked for ragtops too, though. Wonder if it's the metal ribs that form the roof structure?

 

Probably so. (Metal Ribs)

 

Couldn't resist. Something ought to be done about that dog!

-Gio P

 

Ive had my adventure with electricity when i was young, not lightning but a light socket. I was three yrs old and i stuck both my middle fingers into a light socket. the only reason i survived was because my body created a full circuit so electricity was just "flowing" through me and not just hitting me. The effects were longstanding though, i think it was second degree burns on both fingers and a growth tendion fried on my right middle, now its crooked. I consider myself lucky and Im happy to hear that you are ok Karen.

 

4 tires protect you from being grounded - my ass. The bolt done traveled like a few miles down through air. 4 inches of rubber is nothing. All my electrical systems were fine. It must have been a fly over. Close w/ no leaders or direct contact. Ah, perhaps I was going too fast!