| Author | Message | ||
     Spdkls |
LAWRENCE, Kan. — A 45-year-old Lawrence man was killed when he was hit by lightning as he was riding his motorcycle as storms swept through northeast Kansas. Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Herrig says the man was with six other motorcyclists who are members of the Bikers Against Child Abuse group. He was hit by lightning about 5 p.m. Saturday on U.S. 24 between Perry and Granville. A man riding next to the victim was treated and released at a Topeka hospital. The other five members of the group were not injured. Herrig says the motorcyclists were returning home after visiting some children they had helped in the past in their work against child abuse. He calls the man's death a "tragic, sad thing. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Rain falls on the wicked and the righteous. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Bad deal. Important safety tip- motorcycles provide NO protection against lightning, unlike automobiles. | ||
| Iamike |
Several years ago, while on a cycle trip in Colorado, I was talking to an older guy riding a Goldwing. He was telling us about how he had been hit by lightning a few years earlier. He and his wife were riding in the mountains when they stopped to put on their rain gear. He was standing next to the bike with his foot on a peg when it hit him. He woke up in the hospital and the joke became was that it wasn't the lightning that didn't kill him but his wife tried when the first thing he asked about was if his bike was ok. She wasn't amused since she ws standing there too. Amazingly she wasn't affected at all she said. It's too bad about the guy in Kansas, especially since he was on a benefit ride. | ||
| Ourdee |
Ft_bstrd, amen | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Yeah but if you gotta go it's not a bad way. Riding with your mates & zap finito. I'd be happy with that. | ||
| Nevrenuf |
may he rest in peace. the shame of it all is that here's a guy that is commited to helping children, no longer able to but the sob that was involved with the child abuse with this kid that they went to see is still alive probably. | ||
| 86129squids |
Yeah, heard about that in the news. Didn't know he was a BACA member. Godspeed, and rest in peace. Your brothers and sisters will carry on the good work. | ||
| Teddagreek |
Important safety tip- motorcycles provide NO protection against lightning, unlike automobiles. That's good to know I don't think twice about riding home in a lightning storm come rainy season... Convertibles aren't safe either... http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/outdoors.htm | ||
| Froggy |
So am I the only one that has a lightning strike detector on their bike? | ||
| Ratyson |
Wow.. So tragic. RIP.} Important safety tip- motorcycles provide NO protection against lightning, unlike automobiles. Safety-er tip: Cars do not provide protection against lightning either. Well, to be more correct, they are better than a bike... but if you happen to be touching ANYTHING in the car, the odds of getting hit are huge. It is better than nothing though I guess. (Message edited by RATyson on April 27, 2009) | ||
| Hughlysses |
Ratyson- Here's what the NOAA article quoted above says: ----------------------------------------- Safe Vehicle A safe vehicle is a hard-topped car, SUV, minivan, bus, tractor, etc. (soft-topped convertibles are not safe) . If you seek shelter in your vehicle, make sure all doors are closed and windows rolled up. Do not touch any metal surfaces. If you're driving when a thunderstorm starts, pull off the roadway. A lightning flash hitting the vehicle could startle you and cause temporary blindness, especially at night. Do not use electronic devices such as HAM radios during a thunderstorm. Lightning striking the vehicle, especially the antennas, could cause serious injury if you are talking on the radio or holding the microphone at the time of the flash. Emergency officials such as police officers, firefighters, security officers, etc., should use extreme caution using radio equipment when lightning is in the area. Your vehicle and its electronics may be damaged if hit by lightning. Vehicles struck by lightning are known to have flat tires the next day. This occurs because the lightning punctures tiny holes in the tires. Vehicles have caught fire after being struck by lightning; however, there is no modern day documented cases of vehicles "exploding" due to a lightning flash. --------------------------------------- My first cousin was actually driving in her car about 1978 when it was struck by lightning. She was driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic in her ~1978 Pontiac Firebird during an absolute deluge. It was thundering and lightning all around the area. Suddenly there was a flash and a BLAM! that completely deafened her. The radio was fried, as was the radio antenna that was embedded in the windshield. You could actually see that it was burned inside the glass. Each of the 4 tires had a scorch mark down the side. She was OK, but it scared the crap out of her. | ||
| Court |
Cars DO provide some protection. I was hit in a Chrysler by a major strike on Colby, KS. Three radio antennas were reduced to metal balls on the fenders and the car radio, IMTS and VHF Micor were toasted. It's bright and easy to hear. If it's any consolation I also had my house hit, flames come out the 120V outlet and cook the television set I'd just gotten for graduation in 1977. I'm a big believer in Metal Oxide Varistor Secondary Arresters. | ||
| Methed |
That's Solomon, right FB? | ||
| Gregtonn |
Bummer. For the record. The protection a hard-topped (read metal) car provides has nothing to with the tires. One of the early episodes of CSI got that wrong. A lightning bolt having traveling hundreds or even thousands of feet will not be slowed in the least by 6" or so of rubber. The metal body of the car does however act as a Faraday Cage, which means it conducts the lightning around the outside of the car body. G | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Matthew 5:45 Righteous actions do not insulate one from earthly circumstances. Sometimes cheats and liars prosper. | ||
| Court |
>>>Faraday Cage Precisely. (Message edited by court on April 27, 2009) | ||
| Alchemy |
I have been thinking about lightning lately as I am taking some measures for protection. There is some interesting information at the links at this site: http://www.gacopper.com/Link.html Broadcast stations with antennas mounted many hundreds of feet up typically operate through electrical storms enjoying some protection for their transmitters. It seems to me there is a business opportunity in affordable residential lightning protection for the very expensive electronics in many of todays households. | ||
| Iamike |
You can do a lot of things to protect your equipment from lightning but one way or another it can get you. The best thing is to make sure all of your grounds in the house connect to a single point which should be the ground rod beneath your electric meter. I argued with a local telephone company manager because he thought that the telephone grounds should be on the opposite side of the house from the electric entrance. But then he couldn't understand why so many of his customers were losing their answer machines and electronic phones. I explained to him that the electrical code stated that they should be bonded together and that in a power system fault or lightning strike that there is a tremendous amount of current flowing and if the grounds are separated any distance it just makes a huge voltage difference between them. After he had an electrician go around and run a heavy ground wire tying them together he had no more problems. That is why they tell you to make as small of a spot as possible if you are out in the open during a lightning storm because even if the lightning doesn't hit you the ground current can. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
That is why they tell you to make as small of a spot as possible Yeah, I'm screwed.  | ||
| Court |
Try THIS | ||
| Iamike |
I've got one of those in my panel plus I use either the power strip surge protectors or the receptacle type. Either way use the good ones that have both MOVs and coils. I did make a mistake when I put the tv antenna on the opposite side of the roof than the meter. I was thinking of ease of access to the antenna instead of where the lightning would go if it got hit. I need to move it to the peak above the meter and run a nice ground lead down to the ground rod. If you want a good free resource, ECM magazine does a monthy code discussion. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
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