Inside a vehicle is the safest place to be. The electricity travels through the metal body to the ground.
I’m assuming the pavement popped because underlying water turned instantly to steam.
“Inside a vehicle is the safest place to be. The electricity travels through the metal body to the ground.”
Modern vehicles, that’s true. Actually, vehicles are seldom struck, because lightning seeks ground, and the tires pretty much insulate vehicles unless they are in standing water. But you are right, if they are struck, they act like a Faraday cage.
Around 1910 a grand uncle of mine was on his way to a barn on a wagon to get out of a sudden storm. Unfortunately, he, the horse, and the wagon were struck by lighning. He was shocked, but lived, and I still have the pocket watch with the hole the lightning burned in it. Killed the horse, destroyed the wagon, but my uncle went on to live to 107.
Hank
Theoretically, that's true.
On the other hand, we're talking about 50 million volts trying to be insulated from the earth by four contact points of rubber about four inches square each.
That's over three million volts for every square inch of insulation.
So I think you can pretty much count on some insulation failure under such conditions...
