Lightning sends chunk of highway through truck in Florida

WALTON COUNTY, Fla. – A lightning strike in Florida launched a chunk of highway pavement through a truck windshield and injured two people inside the vehicle on Monday morning, according to fire officials.

The Walton County Fire Rescue responded to the accident on Interstate 10 near DeFuniak Springs, news outlets reported. Photos shared by the department on social media showed the Ford pickup truck’s windshield and back window shattered.

Walton County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Corey Dobridnia told the Tallahassee Democrat that the two occupants of the vehicle suffered minor lacerations from the smashed glass and “will be fine.”

A study published last month by a Finland-based environmental monitoring company found that Oklahoma had narrowly overtaken Florida as the lightning capital of the U.S., news outlets reported. But Florida ranked No. 1 in cloud-to-ground strikes.

“Fortunately, most of the bad weather is past us now, but please be careful out there this morning,” the county fire rescue department wrote Monday on Facebook. “Slow down and be on the lookout for storm damage and debris in the roadways.”