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WESTMINSTER Colorado - A motorcyclist was killed after he was struck by lightning while driving on U.S. 36 Wednesday afternoon.

The Westminster Fire Department says 46-year-old Gary Missi of Longmont was struck while driving between Church Ranch Boulevard and Sheridan Boulevard at around 5:15 p.m.

After Missi was hit he lost control and crashed against the center median. He ended up 150 yards from where the lightning hit the asphalt.

Rescue workers could not revive Missi and he was pronounced dead on scene.

The lightning left a crater in the asphalt about 18 inches long, eight inches wide, and four inches deep.

CDOT has repaired the damage to the road.

U.S. 36 was shut down to one lane for about two hours because of the accident.

Robert Gift, a member of the Lightning Data Center at St. Anthony Hospital in Denver, says although many cyclists and motorcyclists believe they are safe from lightning, they are not. Gift says people on bikes and motorcycles aren't grounded.

Gift says although rubber is an excellent insulator of electrcity, tires can be compromised by the millions of volts of electricity in lightning.

Automobiles are also not grounded. However, being inside a car is safer because a direct hit will most likely travel harmlessly around the occupants through the metal exterior and frame and exit to ground, Gift says.

He was riding a yellow Katana

Now did the lightning kill him instantly or did he die from the ensuing crash? I'd put my odds, the crash killed him as people have survived lightning strikes.

Damn, he should have had a 1-iron strapped to his bike.

Damm! I've never even heard of something like that! Lightning blowing holes in the asphalt? Man, I don't even know how many times I've been down that stretch of road. And 36 down to 1 lane for 2 hrs at 5:15? God the traffic must have been backed up for 10 miles at the least. That wasn't even bad luck, that stretch of road has lighting poles which are both tall and grounded. Poor Gary must've ticked off somebody.

VTX1300C wrote: The lightning left a crater in the asphalt about 18 inches long, eight inches wide, and four inches deep.

Wow...did aliens come out?

No, just Lectroids.

Ok guys, I am a safety person for an electric utility and occasionally I do demo's for local fire depts, schools, etc. using 7200 volts. Lightning can be 1,000,000's of volts. The gentleman from the Lightning Data Center is correct that rubber is a good insulator. Tires however are another matter. Tires are made of many things besides rubber. Carbon and steel and many contaminants in the rubber make for good conductors. In one of the parts of the demo, I use an ordinary tire and draw a pretty good arc. I only have a very limited number of amperes available with my demo unit. Lighning has a very large number of amperes so there would be a much larger arc. Many uninformed people believe that folks are "insulated" from electrcity when they are in a car that perhaps has a power line down across it or a lightning strike. The electrcity actually travels through the car and seeks a path to ground. People in the car are just like birds sitting on energized lines. If the rider was struck by lightning, it likely hit him (he would have been the tallest thing on the bike) and he was part of the path to ground. If you are the path then "poof" In a car the current would flow through the metal parts of the car just like the wires overhead and you would not be a path to ground unless you stepped out and touched the car and the ground at the same time.
This is a simple explanation and there are many other possible factors.

So if we all put little lightning poles on our bikes to be the highest point, we'd be safe?

yeah, and then connect the lightning rod to an igniter on the exhaust pipe!
i volunteer someone else to try it though.