And our various discussions on energy weapons make it clear: kinetic energy (impact) is far more efficient as a means of killing people than projected energy.
So–
is the risk/likelyhood/frequency of being injured/maimed/crippled by lightning greater than the risk/likelyhood/frequency of being killed by it?
Are the odds of being blasted off the map greater than being injured?
It looks like injuries outstrip death by a fair amount.
Looking here table #4 is the total number of deaths and injuries for the top states.
Table #6 is deaths only.
Both tables are for 1959-1994
Florida 1543 total deaths and injuries, 345 deaths. doing the math that leaves 1198 injuries.
Michigan 732 total deaths and injuries, 89 deaths. 643 injuries.
Considering that most people stay indoors during a thunderstorm, I’d say your chances of being hit by lightning when walking outside during a thunderstorm are bigger than suggested by statistics.
Thursday a woman in Sydney was struck by lightning (well her umbrella was) while raching into the car to grab her child. Three workers on the tarmac at the airport were hit as well. All were uninjured.
I have treated a fair amount of lightning injuries along with a death or two over the years. There is only an inconsistent reporting mechanism, so statistics are not accurate.
If you beaned by a lightning bolt while you are standing out in the open and you are in the direct path between the ground and the sky, you are gonna die. However there are lots of variant possibilities related to the lightning bolt itself that do not kill you. It’s pretty common to get a little sideplash current or some variant of static discharge short of a big old lightning bolt. These can burn you or cause some internal damage, or even just cause a cardiac standstill which is lethal all by itself if it lasts long enough. I have treated patients who got knocked to the ground and even lost consciousness but who were otherwise fine without even an elevation in their muscle enzymes.
Many injuries are secondary ones also, such as getting knocked to the ground and beaning your head or breaking a bone.
People who survived lightning survived a lesser event than the main bolt. This includes that Park Service guy who survived so many lightning events you have to figure that he is a poor conductor…I suspect his brain cells don’t conduct that well either, considering how slow a learner he must be.