Bike gets hit by lightning with guy working on it

[2000xlt]

What are the odds of this happening, it would def scar the crap out of me
http://www.exbyte.net:80/viewclip.php?id=3660

 

[Ras_Thavas]

A few years ago a guy was riding his BMW motorcycle in Suffolk VA (I think on route 58). He was struck by lightning and killed. I remember reading the article and seeing the pictures of the motorcycle. It looked like it had been hit by a blaster rifle (well, if one had a blaster rifle.)

I tried to search for the article by putting "motorcyclist struck by lightning" in Google. Apparently it is a fairly common occurrence judging by the number of hits returned.

 

[yuandrew]

Seen it on youtube as well. Although many think it was "faked" (who would be videotaping a friend working on a motorcycle anyway ?); I think there are many things in it that are possible.

As the witnesses in the video says; the main strike was on a vent pipe about 30 feet away from where they were standing and if you've ever been within 50 feet of a lightning strike; it does sound like an explosion. Some of the charge may have traveled across the ground to the metal frame of the bike and shocked the person working on it. Note that the kickstand was also down at the time which may have provided a low resistance path.

If you also listen closely after the strike; you can hear fire alarms going off in the building as well.