Rider in Florida kill in accident after getting struck by lightning

[Climber]

A motorcyclist was struck by lightning while riding on I-95. His helmet couldn’t save him.

A North Carolina motorcyclist died Sunday afternoon when he was struck by a lightning bolt and then crashed on a Florida Highway.

The 45-year-old man from Charlotte, N.C., who has been identified as Benjamin Austin Lee, according to the Palm Beach Post, was hit just before 3 p.m. At the time, he was driving on I-95 in Volusia County, Fla., about 50 miles from Orlando, the Florida Highway Patrol said in a statement Sunday.

According to an off-duty Virginia state trooper who witnessed the strike, the lightning bolt’s impact caused the motorcyclist to veer off the road. The 2018 motorcycle flipped, throwing the driver from bike, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

“Lightning hit him. He went flying off his bike,” WKMG News 6 reported an eyewitness who called 911 told the dispatcher.

Lt. Kim Montes, public affairs officer for the Florida Highway Patrol, told The Post that the traffic homicide investigator said "he has never seen anything like this” in his 20 years responding to fatal crashes.

A photo posted on the agency’s official Twitter page showed the biker’s shattered helmet with cracks and burns from the bolt.

It’s unclear whether the cause of death was the lightning strike or the subsequent crash.

You can do everything right, but sometimes if your number is up...

:rip rider

 

[GAJ]

Dear lord.

 

[budman]

OMG. :wow

:rip Benjamin

 

[dravnx]

If he was wearing the Aerostich Farady Cage suit this wouldn't have happened.

 

[scootergmc]

A motorcyclist was struck by lightning while riding on I-95. His helmet couldn’t save him.

You can do everything right, but sometimes if your number is up...

:rip rider

RIP rider from 2019.

 

[budman]

Good fact checking scooter!

 

[East Bay Mike]

Welcome to last year.

But still crazy sad.

 

[budgie45]

I was caught on the bay bridge couple of years ago when that crazy lighting storm was happening lol I’ll tell ya
Shitting bricks the whole way home

 

[doc4216]

Honestly surprised it didn’t happen in Tampa, which has the most lightning strikes in the nation I believe.

RIP rider :rose

 

[ThinkFast]

I was out riding a week or so ago when we had that lightning storm that triggered all the wild fires up here in North Bay. I’ve ridden in heavy rain plenty of times, but couldn’t recall riding through a thunder storm before, so wasn’t sure how to react.

I was aware of the lack of faraday cage protection on the bike versus being in a car, so was musing on what I should do. Get off the road and find a building to shelter in? Or at least pull over and get on the ground away from the bike?

Ultimately I kept riding. I was keeping an eye on where the lightning was coming from, and which way the system was headed, and started feeling a bit of relief that it was already across my path and heading away from me. Plus I was descending in elevation, so I figured it if was going to strike near me, it would hit something higher up behind me.

Glad someone posted this thread, though. First time I’ve heard of anyone being struck on a moto. Scary stuff.

 

[scootergmc]

The thunderstorms I've ridden through I haven't so much been concerned with lightning, but hail can hurt like hell at speed. Lightning or hail, gas stations usually provide cover.

 

[DataDan]

It's not as uncommon as you (or I) might think. I have 9 lightning strikes in my crash news archive since 2003, all fatal except a motorcop in Key West. There are probably more non-fatals that weren't deemed newsworthy. The deaths have occurred in: Colorado (2), New Mexico (2), Florida, Kansas, South Dakota, Virginia.

Here's the rider's helmet from the 2019 Ormond Beach incident:

 

[ThinkFast]

It's not as uncommon as you (or I) might think. I have 9 lightning strikes in my crash news archive since 2003, all fatal except a motorcop in Key West. There are probably more non-fatals that weren't deemed newsworthy. The deaths have occurred in: Colorado (2), New Mexico (2), Florida, Kansas, South Dakota, Virginia.

Here's the rider's helmet from the 2019 Ormond Beach incident:

Nice work on the stats, Dan - especially impressive you've got one on something this obscure. One every two years? Seems pretty uncommon to me, Data Man.

35 people died from dog attacks in 2018 alone. So your odds of dying from getting mauled by a dog are, what, 150x greater than getting hit by lightning while riding? https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/preventable-death-overview/odds-of-dying/data-details/

 

[Blankpage]

RIP rider from 2019.

I seem to recall this being posted here last year also, probably by the OP

 

[novaks47]

Wow, scary shit!

I've only ridden in lightning once, years ago. Was on creek rd, at the top of Haskins Hill at around 4am(early commute), and saw lightning not too far off in the distance, and it was quite unnerving. I layed down as flat as I could, and hauled ass off that peak, lmao. Normally I'd avoid that sort of weather, but it was one of those brief local storms that was not forecast.

 

[PorradaVFR]

As a former FL rider I rode through some nasty thunderstorms and had the (clearly wrong) belief that the rubber tires would make riders FAR less likely to be struck as we would not be appealing paths to ground. Plus we’re usually MOVING. Talk about bad luck.