Daily Mail Online – June 19, 2009:
A teenage girl survived a terrifying lightning strike after she was saved by the wire of her iPod.
Schoolgirl Sophie Frost and her boyfriend Mason Billington, both 14, stopped to shelter under a tree when a storm struck as they were walking near their homes.
Doctors believe Sophie survived the 300,000-volt surge only because it travelled through the gadget’s wire, diverting it away from her vital organs.
Both are expected to make a full recovery and Sophie may not even have a permanent scar.
She will be thankful she was wearing her iPod, which she had been given four days earlier as a gift from her grandmother.
So no one taught her or her boyfriend that sitting under a tree in a lightning storm was dangerous?
I doubt the hair thin wires in the iPod actually did much of anything.
#1. Lesson learned about the tree.
She also learned that we must all wear ipods during a thunder storm.
Thank God she wasn’t carrying a fucking Zune.
on the down site they wrecked a perfectly good iPod…
Oh boy.. just wait ’till they hear about this over at engadget.
This is probably the fifth time I’ve heard this story over the last few years. I don’t feel like searching because I really don’t care but I doubt this has happened on multiple occasions.
Forgot to add…if it really does happen THAT much, maybe you shouldn’t wear an ipod during a storm.
What was she listening to? AC/DC’s High Voltage?
At least those over priced pieces of H/W are good for something.
I think she was listening to Metallica’s Ride The Lightning
Nonsense….
Was she saved by the iPod or did it attract the lightning to her?
# 2 Rider,
“I doubt the hair thin wires in the iPod actually did much of anything.”
WRONG, VERY WRONG!
From my own experience I can say that lightning does travel alone very thin wires.
In my case lightning had traveled along the very thin wires of my cell phone charger. It evaporated the wire and transformer leaving a black trail of insulation where the wire was along the wall.
The lightning bolt struck when I was in my apartment. The lightning bolt struck the apartment building or somewhere near by. Fire department and insurance inspections afterward found no damage on the exterior of the building. However, My cell phone charger blew up in a white flash of light and loud clap. I about craped in my pants.
Not only did the strike vaporize my phone charger and it’s line but it started a fire in the floor underneath my apartment and in the ceiling of the one below. Luckily the fire started next a PVC fire sprinkler line that melted and doused the fire but flooded the apartments below mine.
I didn’t know the building was on fire. All I saw was some smoke (residual smoke I thought) coming from the blown up wall socket. I didn’t leave the apartment until I heard a sudden rumbling noise coming from the floor (turned out to be rushing water from the PVC pipe).
Meanwhile, while I was still in the apartment, and as I said, the lightning left an outline of the thin wire from the wall transformer to the phone plug, an evaporated a black trail of insulation along the wall where the line was.
The cell phone wasn’t plugged into the charger at the time and it of course was not damaged. My TV and other appliances where plugged in at other wall sockets and they where not damaged. Power was still on.
Insurance inspectors and fire department couldn’t say why that outlet only seemed to have conducted the lighting strike. But it did. The thin wire phone charger wire wasn’t connected to anything, but it conducted enough electricity to vaporize, leaving a distinct trail on the wall behind.
They didn’t mention whether the boyfriend was injured when she bit down.
# 4 She survived but that is one nasty hicky
@14:
I have no doubt that lightning will travel along very thin wires. The point is I doubt enough of it will travel through the wires to protect you. People survive lightning strikes all the time, I think it’s a major jump to conclusion to say this person surviving was because of the iPod.
I agree with;
# 1 Ron Larson said, on June 21st, 2009 at 6:36 am
So no one taught her or her boyfriend that sitting under a tree in a lightning storm was dangerous?
I mean, WTF, who hasn’t been told stay away from tree during a lightning storm?
MY GOD!!! The lightning even turned her fingernails black!!!
Poor thing…
Look, the UK is becoming a fascist state:
http://www.infowars.com/british-woman-arrested-imprisoned-for-asking-cop-for-badge-number/