Story By: Amelia Guran, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN/Galina Ershova

This is the moment a dashboard camera proves that lightning does strike twice when it hits a car stuck in a traffic jam.

The blast burned the antenna of the car, smashed the window on one of the doors, and also fused the on-board computer and the electronic control unit needed to make the key work. But the car itself was still driveable, and the lights still worked.

The footage was captured on a busy road during heavy rain when traffic started to come to a standstill on the Berdsky motorway in Novosibirsk in Russia last weekend (15th September).

A Toyota RAV4 is just in front. To the left, we can see a 4WD with its brake lights on as it slows to a stop. It was reportedly the start of the afternoon rush hour.

There is then suddenly what appears to be two lightning strikes that hit the car in quick succession, and which are captured on the footage.

Galina Ershova, who was driving the Toyota, said: “I wondered at first what on Earth had happened? The flash had also blinded me for a split second and left me confused.”

Despite the damage to the car, nobody was hurt.

Local road safety officials said that a lightning strike on a car was an extremely rare occurrence, however because it tended to go round the car rather than through it, people were far safer staying inside their vehicles during lightning strikes than stepping outside.

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