James Otis Jr. was an American patriot before and during the revolution. He was the first to write that “taxation without representation is tyranny.”
Carus had a short stint as Roman Emperor that began in 282 CE and ended less than a year later.
Geremi Gonzáles had a 9-year career in Major League Baseball – playing for the Cubs, Devil Rays, Red Sox and Mets.
Benjamin Harrison IV was a Virginia plantation owner and politician before the American revolution. His son was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Both a grandson and a great-great grandson became President of the United States.
John B. King was a boat working on improving the navigation channel on the St. Lawrence River.
That’s a pretty random list of people (and a boat).
What do they have in common?
All died by getting struck by lightning. In the case of the boat, the lightning strike detonated (a lot of) dynamite on board. 30 people died when the boat exploded – one more than on the much more famous Edmund Fitzgerald.
Here is something a bit weird. Our chances of not getting struck by lightning are better than in the good old days.
Getting struck by lightning by the numbers
More or less accurate counts of the number of people dying as a result of getting struck by lightning begin about a hundred years ago.
Let’s start with American data.
In the 1920s, about 400 Americans per year died of being struck by lightning. It is different today. Lightning strike fatalities have not exceeded 20 Americans since 2017. The decline in deaths as a rate of population is even more spectacular. A century ago, 3 to 4 Americans per million people died of lightning strikes. Today, it is less than 0.1 person per million.
In Canada, between 20 and 30 people per year were killed by lightning strikes during the 1920s. This was about half the American rate by population. The differential rates were the result of different climates. There is more lightning in the USA than north of the 49th parallel. Today, in the 2020s, only 2 or 3 Canadians per year die from lightning strikes.
If you are afraid of dying by getting struck by lightning, things are better today than in the good old days.
Why do fewer people die from lightning strikes?
The four most important reasons for fewer lightning deaths are:
1. We spend more time indoors. Fewer people work in the fields or other outdoor locations. The changes in our economy and lifestyle had the serendipitous effect of hiding us from lightning.
2. Better weather forecasting. We get more advance notice of approaching storms.
3. Improvements in medical treatment for cardiac arrest. Lightning kills by stopping the heart. We now have better ways of getting it going again.
4. Moving from foot or horse transportation to automobiles.
The first three of these reasons do not need a lot of explanation, but let’s delve into the fourth reason a bit.
Lightning is attracted to the highest object. The result was that for centuries there was a kind of class-based populism practiced by the lightning gods. Rich people on horseback were more likely to die than poor folk on foot.
Then came the car. In most cases, people are relatively safe from lighting while in a car. Many (including me until I did research for this article) believe the rubber tires provide the protection by not allowing the electricity in the lightning to reach the ground. This, in fact, is nonsense. A lightning bolt contains hundreds of thousands of volts. A small strip of rubber in the tire is not enough insulation to keep the lightning bolt from reaching the ground. What’s more, today’s tires are “steel belted”.
The real reason that you are relatively safe in a car is because the metal body acts as a Faraday Cage. The electricity flows around the outside of the car’s body, leaving people inside safe. Usually. Experts warn about touching metal parts of the frame while the car is getting zapped. In addition, convertibles or cars with fiberglass bodies offer no protection. If you have a 1953 Corvette or a more down-market GM Saturn, don’t drive it in a lightning storm.
Reduced deaths from the damage caused by lightning
Remember the 30 poor guys who died on the John B. King. It I wanted to be pedantic (which I never am), I would point out that the lightning did not kill them. It was the dynamite.
In the good old days, more people died as a result of traumatic injuries or burns arising from lightning striking buildings, trees, or boats.
I can’t really quantify this, but will assert as a fact that these kinds of deaths are rarer than in the good old days.
Why?
Lightning does less damage to buildings.
This began to get better than in the good old days in 1752 when Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod. Franklin had figured out that lightning was electricity (in an experiment that should have been fatal – kids, if you read about this one, do not try it at home). He reasoned that a metal rod grounded to the earth would divert the electricity in lighting past the building. Franklin was right. Lightning rods were installed on high buildings such as churches and barns. The technology (along with Elisha Otis’s invention of a safety device for elevators) made sky scrapers possible. The CN Tower is hit by lightning an average of 75 times per year. The Empire State Building gets zapped 50 times annually. Without Franklin’s technology, these tall structures would be struck down by Zeus or Thor.
The modern version of Franklin’s lightning rod is more sophisticated than a single iron rod. A modern structure is built with a Faraday Cage built into the exterior shell of the building. Protection is similar to that provided by a metal body of a car. The lightning goes around rather than through.
Weird relationships with lightning
When researching this article, I was introduced to the stories of two guys who had a special relationship with lightning.
Roy Sullivan holds the record for being struck by lightning the most times. Seven. None fatal. Sullivan was a park ranger in the Shenandoah National Park in the Appalachian Mountains. He spent a lot of time outside on mountain ridges. Sullivan was often on horseback. Storms came up quickly without warning. Sullivan collected an impressive series of burn scars and his hair was set on fire five times. But he lived to the age of 71.
Edwin Robinson had an even more unusual relationship with lightning. In 1971, Robinson was in a motor vehicle accident. There was damage to his ocular nerves. Robinson was blinded. Seven years later, he went outside during a storm to call for his pet chicken. Robinson was struck by lightning. When he regained consciousness twenty minutes later, Robinson could see. 20/20 vision. As a good Lutheran, Robinson gave all credit to God for restoring his sight. What’s more, Robinson had been bald as well as blind. After the lightning strike, his hair started growing again. Maybe God wanted Robinson to say “looking good” when he saw himself in the mirror after seven years.