Kawasaki Concours Forum
Mish mash => Open Forum => Topic started by: Conniesaki on June 11, 2019, 12:19:00 AM
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A motorcycle rider in Florida was killed on Sunday when he was struck by lightning while driving on Interstate 95. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that the motorcyclist from Charlotte, North Carolina suffered the fatal crash after lightning struck his helmet.
Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Kim Montes told reporters that a Virginia State Police trooper had happened to see the accident while on vacation. He told law enforcement that he saw a bolt of lightning strike the man's helmet a second before the deadly crash.
The 45-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:11 p.m. on Sunday. His name has not been released to the public. Montes confirmed there were scorch marks left on the helmet which indicated it had been hit by lightning.
A Florida Highway Patrol spokesperson is cited as describing the helmet as shattered.
The highway patrol's troop D, operating out of Orlando, has tweeted an image of the biker's helmet. With two large gouges on the top, the helmet is seen lying on the wet tarmac.
"This is what's left of a 45 year old man's helmet after he was struck by lightning, while riding his motorcycle southbound, on I-95 in Volusia County this afternoon. Unfortunately he did not survive the crash," read the caption posted alongside the tweet.
As a result of the traffic accident all three southbound lanes of the I-95 were closed between the highway's State Road 40 and U.S. 1 exits in Ormond Beach, Volusia County Sheriff's Office said. Law enforcement were able to reopen one of the lanes to cars just before 3 p.m.
Officers from the Ormond Beach Police Department and Volusia County Sheriff's Office were in attendance at the scene, responding to calls at the cordoned off area before investigations were handed over in full to the Florida Highway Patrol.
According to the National Weather service, on average 49 people are killed by lightning in the United States each year, based on data collected over the last 30 years. Hundreds more are injured by lightning strikes each year and some can suffer lifelong neurological impairment as a result of the strikes. Only about ten percent of people who are struck by lightning are killed, leaving 90 percent with various degrees of disability.
Between 2008-17, Florida had the highest number of fatalities related to lightning strikes, the National Weather Service reported. At total of 47 individuals were killed by lightning in the period of just under ten years. Texas had the second highest number of fatalities from lightning strikes with a total of 20.
https://www.newsweek.com/florida-motorcycle-lightning-shattered-helmet-crash-1443054 (https://www.newsweek.com/florida-motorcycle-lightning-shattered-helmet-crash-1443054)
Here's his helmet:
(https://static.pressfrom.info/upload/images/real/2019/06/10/motorcyclist-dies-after-lightning-strikes-his-helmet__264947_.jpg?content=1)
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Sometimes, your number is just up.
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Yeah, we had a rider killed in the Norfolk/VA Beach area by lightening some years back. I've also had the experience of being shocked through my gloves by a near strike. Went to a nearby McDonalds and waited for the storm to pass. I don't ride in thunderstorms anymore after that if I can help it.
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Now, some helmet standards agency will have to increase the safety requirements of helmets.
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That helmet wasn't DoT approved, either.
It was however, approved by some other organization...
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Now, some helmet standards agency will have to increase the safety requirements of helmets.
And require grounding straps from the helmet and jacket to the bike? That would be fun.
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How do they know the strike didn't kill the guy? Maybe being dead caused the crash.
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That helmet wasn't DoT approved, either.
It was however, approved by some other organization...
The intense electrical field caused a polarity reversal, inverting the matter state. (We really shouldn't be making fun, since the poor guy did get killed, but we are who we are.)
RIP fellow rider.
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Too soon?
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And require grounding straps from the helmet and jacket to the bike? That would be fun.
No, they will just make lightning rods mandatory on the back of all bikes like the one below, then have chains connected to the frame under the bike that drag on the ground like ambulances have.
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/30/80/81/308081546c89c24ade35dc1946081355.png)
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And that is hard or impossible for a lot of people to live with. So instead, we create superstitions and various other beliefs / customs to avoid anything 'bad' happening to us, individually, if we, again individually, do certain things as required by our [superstitions / beliefs / customs / religions / ad infinitum. This IS the root cause of all of our organized systematic rituals.... to keep 'the evil' at bay.
Bottom line is that in the end, it is nothing but the luck of the draw and neither the most serious disciple of any organized 'anti- evil group' or any individual personal actions (throwing salt over a shoulder, etc.) will stop it from happening.
Stuff happens. Often it happens to people (and ants, lizards, elephants, ad nauseum) but as many of us will not accept that, we make a part time job out of pretending we can avoid it or reduce the consequences. But let's face it: if lightening strikes us, we are toast and there is no way to 'ward that off'. And yes, a true lightening strike is always fatal and not pretty- those people who claim to have been struck by lightening and survived were really touched by what are called 'feeders' around the actual bolt. No mammal has ever survived nor will ever survive an actual 'lightening' (the actual bolt) strike.
But then again, I have thrown salt, prayed to the god Zeus (the god of lightening), avoided all black cats and ladders so I am covered for the foreseeable future. ::) :o :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:
Brian
Sometimes, your number is just up.
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And that is hard or impossible for a lot of people to live with. So instead, we create superstitions and various other beliefs / customs to avoid anything 'bad' happening to us,
Or worse- more regulations, laws, agencies, and government programs to try to handle it. And usually based on emotional responses instead of actual facts and rational statistical data. It continuously sucks away our freedom, money, and sanity in a false cloak of "safety."
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Just to show that you aren't safe ANYWHERE. When the Reaper comes for you it doesn't matter where you are, what you are doing
From local newspaper, several years ago:
SOUTH BEND, IND.
Tree crashes through roof, kills man watching TV in bed
A large tree limb crashed through a roof and killed a man in his bed.
Police called to the home of David Wetzel, 41, on Wednesday night found a branch 3 feet to 5 feet in diameter lying across the man’s chest.
The tree appeared to be healthy, and investigators did not immediately know what caused the limb to fall.
“It is just one of those unforeseen, tragic events,” said Jaimee Thirion, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department. “It was not storming, and the wind was hardly blowing.”
Wetzel’s wife and son were also home at the time but were not hurt. His wife told officers she was in the kitchen and her husband was watching television in bed.