'I feel like a T-Rex': Couple survives after lightning strikes their car

[schumi]

A young couple had an electrifying experience on their way to Sunday lunch after their car was struck by lightning.

"When it hit, it was like all blank for me almost," said Wynand van der Merwe on Monday.

The product developer and his graphic artist wife were on their way to have a family lunch with their sister visiting from abroad at The Hut in Moorreesburg when lightning struck as they were about to reach the Western Cape town.

"There was the hit, and then moments later my eyes opened and everything was white," Van der Merwe continued.

"The car was like a dead ant moving slowly forward from the momentum. I'm like 'OK, I don't know what just happened'," he said.

People who had been driving behind them told them lightning had hit their car's aerial and said they had expected to find the couple dead inside the car.

More at:

'I feel like a T-Rex': Couple survives after lightning strikes their car

A young Western Cape couple survived their car being hit by lightning, but people behind them thought they had died.

www.news24.com

 

[AntennaMan]

People who had been driving behind them told them lightning had hit their car's aerial and said they had expected to find the couple dead inside the car.

Well..., physics!

 

[Ninja'd]

Well..., physics!

 

[ForceFate]

Isn't it common?

 

[nightjar]

I wonder if their insurance will try to wriggle out of it on the grounds of being an act of God.

 

[Lupus]

Well..., physics!

Kinda yes, the car would've acted like a faraday cage and redirected most of the lightning towards the ground.

 

[pinball wizard]

What the hell does T rex have to do with it?

 

[ponder]

The ancestors must have sent a lightning to strike them or does that only happen in kzn?

 

[Temujin]

Do not panic, our gov has spent years and billions looking into the source of this 'lightning'... we will have answers soon

 

[StrontiumDog]

I wonder if their insurance will try to wriggle out of it on the grounds of being an act of God.

The article mentions that their insurance covers acts of God.

 

[BradleyKZN]

What the hell does T rex have to do with it?

His doctor said it might be muscle damage due to electric shockwaves, but he is running some tests to be safe and to check for kidney damage.

"I feel like a T-Rex - I can't really reach anything," he laughed, referring to the short-armed dinosaur

 

[nightjar]

The article mentions that their insurance covers acts of God.

Thanks.
I missed that.

 

[cpu.]

I wonder if their insurance will try to wriggle out of it on the grounds of being an act of God.

They will have to proof that God exist for that to work. Some insurance companies call it acts of nature because of that.

 

[Gordon_R]

And who says we don't get lightning in the Western Cape!

 

[AntennaMan]

And who says we don't get lightning in the Western Cape!

That's your yearly quota used up.

 

[nightjar]

They will have to proof that God exist for that to work. Some insurance companies call it acts of nature because of that.

Ya!
That for sure but blaming it on apartheid should close all the loopholes.
No insurance company can beat that attack.

 

[Dan C]

Stick to USB , lightning cables are dangerous

 

[wbot]

What the hell does T rex have to do with it?

Came here wondering the same.

Also: "The car was like a dead ant moving slowly forward from the momentum."

I don't get it lol

 

[Splinter]

No-one here remembers the Top Gear episode where the hamster sat in a car while it was jolted with a gazillion volts? Totally safe.

I'm guessing that this couples car had rust via the aerial - and this may have allowed electricity in that would never otherwise have happened.