Holy crapola...motorcyclist struck in the head by lightning.

[JC85]

This is just insane....

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.wsoctv.com/amp/news/local/charlotte-motorcycle-rider-killed-after-being-struck-by-lightning-on-florida-freeway/956732553&ved=2ahUKEwi0woyN7d7iAhVPVK0KHZQuDpoQ0PADMAN6BAgGEBI&usg=AOvVaw0yzBx8T_mVPQSzGMh9z0XU

[twowheeladdict]

No, not insane. 

Common occurrence in lightning storms which is why I respect them and get under cover.

When I lived and worked in Florida there would be constant stories of people getting hit by lightning while sitting in their living room, on the golf course, swimming, fishing, sailing, bicycling, etc. 

My Brother in Law was killed about 10 years ago when he and my sister were struck by lightning from a pop up storm while they were walking in a park.  She survived.

Lightning can and has struck 10 miles away from a storm. 

I have had lightning strike within 50 feet of me on numerous occasions while I was living in Florida.

[pete roper]

Why's it insane? If it's raining the rubber of the tyres isn't a particularly effective insulator and on a bike you don't have the benefit of sitting in a faraday cage like you do in a car. We get a load of big electrical storms around here, in summer particularly! If I see one coming I'll find somewhere to stop quick-smart. If there is no cover I'll get off the bike and cower in a ditch! Last thing you want to be is the tallest conductor in the area!

Pete

[Texas Turnip]

Judy Dawes, wife of the former Cal MGNOC rep was hit by lightening while riding on their Guzzi in Nevada. It took a long time for her to recover.
 
Even cars can have some of the electronis blow up if hit by lightening.

Tex

[wittangamo]

FHP posted this shot of his helmet.

[wirespokes]

Traveling into eastern Oregon one time, we stopped at the cafe in Antelope (called Rajneeshpuram for a while) during a heavy rainstorm. The owner told how she had been struck by lightning sitting in her car with only the driver's window open just slightly. She found religion living through that one.

A few years ago a motorcyclist was struck just north of here in Washington. He didn't realize what had happened, but other motorists behind him witnessed the event and trailed him to his next stop. He was a little dazed as I recall, but ok.

Electrical storms aren't something to be taken lightly.

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Just another reason to not go to Flawduh.

[Lannis]

Why's it insane? If it's raining the rubber of the tyres isn't a particularly effective insulator and on a bike you don't have the benefit of sitting in a faraday cage like you do in a car. We get a load of big electrical storms around here, in summer particularly! If I see one coming I'll find somewhere to stop quick-smart. If there is no cover I'll get off the bike and cower in a ditch! Last thing you want to be is the tallest conductor in the area!

Pete

The "Faraday Cage" effect in a car or plane is, as you say, what (mostly) saves you from the effects of a lightning strike, because the current flows across the surface of the "cage" and doesn't travel through it.

As far as the rubber tires being an "insulator", that's of vanishingly small to zero effect.    A 100,000 amp stroke at 100,000,000 volts of a lightning bolt, with enough stomp to be coming down 2 miles out of the sky, isn't going to take much notice of your rubber tires and the last 8 inches between your car or bike and the ground .... !

[oldbike54]

 Yep , and normally what gets you is the bolt coming out of the ground to meet the charge coming out of the sky , those tires filled full of steel won't do anything to stop that .

 Dusty

[PeteS]

He was the victim of direct numerical ascension.

His number was up.


Pete

[guzzimatic]

Was wondering if it was a carbon fiber helmet? It is a good conductor,but can't really tell by the picture..?

[Chuck in Indiana]

He was the victim of direct numerical ascension.

His number was up.


Pete

I had a nephew that was a victim of that. He was practicing soccer on a clear day except there was a Tstorm maybe 20 miles away. A "bolt from the blue" killed him stone dead. 

[zebraranger]

The lightning in Florida can get bad during the almost daily summer thunderstorms here. Florida leads the nation in lightning deaths, that's at least the third lightning strike while riding that I've heard about over the last few years.

[Rough Edge racing]

  From what I understand, most tires are conductive ...There was  complaints about 20 years ago from toll collectors getting more static electric shocks after the less conductive low rolling resistence tires became more common place...
  And I can tell from a life long experience as an electrician, that mega voltage does what ever it wants and may not follow rules about the path of least resistence..

[larrys]

I loaded munitions on airplanes at Hurlburt Field in Fort Walton Beach, FL in the early 70's. Lightning reports within 10 miles and we were off the flightline!
Larry

[Stormtruck2]

I work at the BP Refinery in Whiting IN.  Many things here react poorly to lightening strikes and blunt force impacts. If lightening is indicated or spotted with in ten (10) miles of the refinery, all out door work is stopped.  You are not allowed to be out in the open during the lightening alert.  This spring it has been an anal irritant.  Weeks go by without getting a single complete night shift completed because of rain or lightening.  We are supposed to be at 58% completion of the project, we are at 23%. Seven twelves are headed our way!!

[Lannis]

....  We are supposed to be at 58% completion of the project, we are at 23%. Seven twelves are headed our way!!

When I was a young and energetic but poor and ambitious overtime hound, that would have been great news ....

Lannis

[Turin]

I assumed this would have been our man

[PhilB]

This very nearly happened to me a few years ago. In 2013, I was coming home from work in Lexington, MA, to NH in a thunderstorm, on Hwy 3, and I smelled ozone and all my hairs stood up, and I had time to realize I was about to be struck by lightning. But I got lucky and rode past it just in time, and it instead struck something very nearby, but that wasn't me.

PhilB

[Lannis]

This very nearly happened to me a few years ago. In 2013, I was coming home from work in Lexington, MA, to NH in a thunderstorm, on Hwy 3, and I smelled ozone and all my hairs stood up, and I had time to realize I was about to be struck by lightning. But I got lucky and rode past it just in time, and it instead struck something very nearby, but that wasn't me.

PhilB

Riding "Out West" has a dimension added to it by lightning that we just don't have in the East, at least not around here.

Fay and I were riding through northern Arizona, when we started riding toward a storm.   You can see those things coming 100 miles away out there, so I was paying attention to how the road was carrying us.   Topping a little rise, I watched the lightning directly hit the road about 5 miles ahead of us, so I wasted NO time getting OFF the road, off the bike, and under the shelter of a little picnic pavilion behind a small church, which had an Indian name and Spanish-language signs.

Where we hung out until the storm got out of the way, and listened to the gospel music playing on the pavilion speakers even though no one was around.   I tucked a bill for the collection plate under the sanctuary door before we left ...

Lannis

[pete roper]

The "Faraday Cage" effect in a car or plane is, as you say, what (mostly) saves you from the effects of a lightning strike, because the current flows across the surface of the "cage" and doesn't travel through it.

As far as the rubber tires being an "insulator", that's of vanishingly small to zero effect.    A 100,000 amp stroke at 100,000,000 volts of a lightning bolt, with enough stomp to be coming down 2 miles out of the sky, isn't going to take much notice of your rubber tires and the last 8 inches between your car or bike and the ground .... !

I wasn't suggesting that the tyres would act as an effective insulator but any electrical discharge will always take the path of least resistance. If there was a steel spike with a direct ground path and exactly the same height adjacent to the 'Rider' I'd wager the lightning would be more likely to use that than a rider on a bike.

It's all speculative though.

Pete

[Lannis]

I wasn't suggesting that the tyres would act as an effective insulator but any electrical discharge will always take the path of least resistance. If there was a steel spike with a direct ground path and exactly the same height adjacent to the 'Rider' I'd wager the lightning would be more likely to use that than a rider on a bike.

It's all speculative though.

Pete

It is, 'cause you can't really experiment with it.   Rough Edge got it right, I think, with " And I can tell from a life long experience as an electrician, that mega voltage does what ever it wants and may not follow rules about the path of least resistance.. "

[Rough Edge racing]

  I have installed lightning protection on large buildings like schools and hospitals...I can say they were the tallest objects in the area.  Lightning seems to like to strike tall things or the tallest thing in the area, like a man out in a field reguadless of least resistence.. think about power poles, every one you see with transformers has a grounding wire running down the pole and buried about 5 foot in the earth...Why doesn't lightening blow up every one of these, not that it never strikes them... I had two story house with a  TV antenna on the chimney...It was a large aluminum affair with the required #10 ground wire connected to ground rod...30 feet away was a group of trees about the same height...A lightning strike splintered the nearest tree to the house..I don't know all the scientific theories about lighning but observation says it does what it does...

[JJ]

My sister lives in Tampa...Florida is the "Lightning Capital of the World",  and she says people don't take it seriously, and are out on the golf course, hiking around, and get struck ALL THE TIME!!

This is the result of not heeding the warnings....  It's not wise to fool with Mother Nature...

[Tom]

Yikes on this guys helmet.  He didn't survive.  Watch the weather while riding.  Stay safe.

https://www.newser.com/story/276321/motorcyclist-struck-by-lightning-causing-fatal-crash.html?utm_source=dailyrundown&utm_medium=email&utm_content=17636957973199064879&utm_campaign=20190610

[Lannis]

Question already asked and answered, yer honor ...

https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=101342.0

Lannis

[bad Chad]

I thought this type of thing is not exactly uncommon??  I recall my dad , 40 years ago telling me the dangers of lightning on a motorcycle.  I have assumed that a handful of riders bought the farm each year?

[lucian]

It's  only a case of wrong place at the wrong time.   Lighting bolts are only trying to connect to he earths iron, molten core basically, if you happen to be interrupting the attempt , you'll likely become a statistic. The lightning did not " hit" the rider , he intercepted it.  Unfortunate but a reality.

[wirespokes]

Sometimes you've got to wonder if it really was chance, or if other unseen/unknown factors were involved.

And then there's cause and effect - perhaps the rider WAS cause in some way and not just accidental effect?

It's like the relationship between vegetation and rain. Seems logical that plants and trees grow where there's rain. On the other hand, vegetation puts out energy that interacts with clouds to drop rain. What comes first - the chicken or the egg?

I have this idea that a person's aura has a lot to do with this discussion since it's an energy field surrounding the body. Not all auras are created equal!

Ever wonder how an old farmer could be struck six or seven times in his life and live through it, while another person is hit once and struck dead? How about the rider struck here in Oregon several years back who was only just a little dazed? Weak lightning bolt???

https://katu.com/news/local/motorcyclist-struck-by-lightning-along-i-5-in-washington

[bodine99]

And yesterday on I-75 3 HD's taken out by a semi. Florida is a tough place to ride