Hit by Lightning

[dogtag]

Somebody was writing about this kind of thing on another board, so I thought I'd share. This one happened to me.
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After working for Motorola for some 30 years, I'd thought I'd seen it all.

One day I was coming home from Portland Ore with my Wife sitting next to me in my Ford Tarus. I had taken my own car but needed to have the company two way radio with me so I took a portable unit and put a magnetic antenna mount on top of the car.
My Wife was reading an article in the newspaper about the lottery and the
writer saying that you had a 10 times better chance of getting hit by lightning than winning.....She breathed a sigh..

The company portable radio sat nestled between my legs so I could get to it easily.
It was a pretty warm day but quite muggy. You know the kind......
So, as I approach Centeralia Washington, My Wife says...."Gee, look how black it is up ahead".
As we approach the overpass in town, I was driving with my right hand on the top of the steering wheel and noticed that all the hair on my arm was standing straight up. My Wife giggles and says, "God, that's funny".

KAPOW!!!!!! A huge spark jumps from my portable to my right thigh and then from my elbow to my Wifes upper arm.
It was like a flash bulb went off in the car.

We pull off underneath the over pass and I take the magnetic mount antenna off the roof of the Tarus.

The strike had left a big round burn on my inner thigh and had made a dime size hole in my slacks. Wifey had a big red welt on her arm but
the both of us were OK.

We got back on the road and Wifey wanted to stop at the 7/11 in town and buy some lottery tickets...
True story. Swear to God!

PS
Car and radio worked fine after our little experience.

[astroracer]

Oh that is plenty scarey! You dodged a bulliet on that one.
I had a similar situation happen to me one night driving home from work. It was black and nasty out and the lightening was flying all over. A HUGE bolt hit a tree in a field about 20 yds from the road right as I was passing by! Just about blinded me and I swear to God that the electricity made the whole tree glow!
Like you said the hair on my arms and head stood straight up right before the hit. I'll never forget that experience.
By the way, the tree died and is gone now...
Mark

[speedster]

Don't be doing that again. That is not the proper use of a ThighMaster.

Glad neither of you were hurt though.

[WS6]

I was watching a show on I think History channel ro TLC oen of those anyway. They were discussing static electricity and if Ben Franklin discovered electricity the way he did. This was not the mythbusters episode. Anyway they were flying kites in weather that was very staticly charged, but no storming. The testing they did was amazing. They had static electricity jumping nearly one inch gaps from a device to the persons finger. He said it hurt like hell and the slow motion video looked wicked. All that from just static electricity and some normal objects, not fancy test equipment.

[TonyL]

I watched an ephisode of Top Gear where they had a guy sit in a VW Golf while it was struck repeadedly with lightning from a huge generator. Cool.

[toxicz28]

Something I learned from my computer geek days:
It takes a 35 volt static discharge to fry a circuit board. It takes 3500 volts for you to feel it.