>> ^maestro156:

Here's that study you wanted
Assuming a mid-range estimate of 120m stops per year, the likelihood of the cop being killed in a traffic stop is 1 in 20 million.
Your chances of being attacked by a shark is 1 in 11.5 million, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. Lightning strikes are a bit more common even than that.
>> ^MrFisk:
How many cars are pulled over in the U.S., in a year? How many result in a fatality to the officer? I'm trying to figure out if it's more likely they'll be shot, hit by lightning, or bitten by a shark.



An interesting correlation to add (and there might not be any info on this) is to add how many traffic stops resulted in an arrest for something AND there was a weapon in the car. Any such case is a potential shoot out that didn't occur (well, except for when a shoot out occured).

Exclude Texas though, because there's pretty much guns laying out on street corners. "Timmy put that pistol down, you don't know where it's been!".

Here's that study you wanted

Assuming a mid-range estimate of 120m stops per year, the likelihood of the cop being killed in a traffic stop is 1 in 20 million.

Your chances of being attacked by a shark is 1 in 11.5 million, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. Lightning strikes are a bit more common even than that.

>> ^MrFisk:

How many cars are pulled over in the U.S., in a year? How many result in a fatality to the officer? I'm trying to figure out if it's more likely they'll be shot, hit by lightning, or bitten by a shark.

Did the lightning strike him or did He strike the lightning ? hrm?

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>> ^Psychologic:

Where does all that electricity go? Are trucks like that usually grounded?

i'm pretty sure in any lighting strike it would fry any electronics "grounded" to the car's chassis.

some trucks are grounded to the road either by a conductive rubber strip or a long-ish metal chain. mostly to dissipate static electricity that builds up from air rushing over the truck's body but could also help w/ lighting. this is especially true for gasoline tanker trucks.

>> ^entr0py:

God uses lightning strike on truck. It's not very effective...


So does that make this a God FAIL?

God uses lightning strike on truck. It's not very effective...

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Did a quick search for info.....might be better links but I was curious about the tires so I searched for tires as well in the search terms to see what came up.

Basically it sounds a lot like the TV shows discussing the way lightning interacts with the human body, which is to say it is almost impossible to predict what will happen. You may not suffer any lasting damage from it, or you may be burnt externally or damaged internally....

Cars can have no damage to being totally destroyed because the lightning super heats the moisture in the vehicle causing damage. Plastics melt, tires explode if it travels through them. One of the websites has pictures that look like chemical interaction on the metals but they say they are lightning strikes, so makes you wonder if it happens and no one notices sometimes.

They both say that you are safer in your vehicle as long as you keep your hands off metal objects to minimize risk of it jumping into your body even with the possibility of the vehicle suffering one of the freak damage incidents.


http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_pls/vehicle_strike.html

http://www.weatherimagery.com/blog/rubber-tires-protect-lightning/


As a side note, I didn't search too hard for it but there was a TV show once interviewing at least one person struck by lightning and investigating it's affects on others or the possibilities of what could happen. There was a guy on there who was struck but the lightning traveled along his skin where rain/sweat was collected and burnt him in the pattern in traveled and they showed some of the damage he suffered from it...noting that external while bad isn't as life threatening as when it goes through your body instead of along it.

No, they're not grounded, but the electricity makes it's way into the ground.

Keeping in mind that the lightening spanned the several thousand foot gap from cloud to ground, making it two feet from the truck chassis to the ground was pretty easy. All the metal truck did was make it a little easier for it to travel for about ten feet.

>> ^Psychologic:

Where does all that electricity go? Are trucks like that usually grounded?

>> ^Psychologic:

Where does all that electricity go? Are trucks like that usually grounded?


The lightning takes the quickest path through the object to the ground (or depending on which kind of lightning it is, from the ground to the sky hurr hurr...anyway) which is through the metal shell of the vehicle, leaving the contents un-fried.

See here - http://videosift.com/video/Top-Gear-Car-Zapped-With-800-000-Volts

[/shameless plug]

>> ^ponceleon:

It's weird on the replay, it almost looks animated...


did I see pixels!!??!

[redacted]

>> ^Trancecoach:

Why is this Timeshift, if the video says that it's in "real-time"? >> ^NetRunner:
timeshift



Uhh, the video is less than a minute long, but more than half of it is not real time. Did you not watch it?