Lightning strike at Salem Sonic, are headsets safe?

By Ashley Roberts
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: July 8, 2008

A second day of storms still has many of you talking about a local fast food worker who had a close call with lightning.

Salem firefighters tell us lightning hit the Sonic on West Main Street last night. Investigators think the lightning hit a wireless headset control, and ran in on one girl’s headset. The strike blew out the bottom of one of her shoes. She is not seriously hurt, but the strike raises the question, should anyone be wearing a headset, or headphones outside during a thunderstorm?

We took our questions to Jack Brockway who is an assistant professor of physics at Radford University. “Wearing those things don’t increase the risk of getting hit by lightning, but if you do get hit wearing anything made of metal or wearing electronic devices that can actually make the consequences a lot worse.”

Brockway believes the young woman who worked at the Sonic in Salem was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. “The lightning comes down and hits where that person is...electricity doesn’t conduct well through a person and it won’t actually go through him or her, but it will go around him or her so you can have these affects where clothing can get burned off or pieces of metal or headphones or IPODS can actually grab a hold of it and cause burns.”

Brockway says what *could* have happened in this case is that when the lightning hit nearby it went through the ground and then into the woman’s body.

10 on your side: Would you say she was struck by lightning since it blew off the bottom of her shoe?

Brockway: Yes I would, absolutely, it was some effect of that current flow around her.”

Brockway tells WSLS 10 on your side that the odds of getting struck by lightning are extremely low, but says the best way to avoid it all together is to stay inside.

Here’s a statement released by Sonic about the lightning strike incident:

Yesterday, lightning struck the control unit of the drive-in’s wireless headset system. No one was injured during the lightning strike, although crew members wearing headsets heard a “pop” and one crew member lost her shoe as a result of the impact of the lightning on the building.

The supplier of Sonic’s wireless headset systems has assured us that no one has been injured during the course of a thunderstorm or following a lightning strike as a result of wearing their wireless headset. According to the supplier, it is typical that the wireless headset system could lose capability following a storm.

Salem Fire & EMS Department investigated the lightning strike and found damage to be limited to the area of the lightning strike only. EMS Personnel also evaluated the crew member and released her on the scene. She has since returned to work.