Lightning Strike Has Math Teacher Counting His Blessings

A fifth-grade Prosper math teacher whose truck was struck by lightning this weekend said he's going to turn it into a lesson plan.

The shock tore up a stretch of road along the Dallas North Tollway near U.S. 380.

“We’re going to do the odds on this," said Russell Babb. "I got to figure out with the kids, what the odds are of your teacher getting struck by lightning."

Babb, who was driving to meet his brother for lunch, said it sounded like a bomb. Concrete flew everywhere, he said.

“It chopped up the cement like a sledgehammer,” he said.

The next thing he knew, a woman was knocking on the window of his Ford pickup truck.

“She said, 'I thought you were dead,' and I said, 'No, I’m still alive,'” Babb said.

Babb said he believes the lightning bolt traveled in three directions through the cab of his truck, zapping the engine, but leaving him and his F-150 unscathed.

“I’m just wondering how anybody survives," he said. "Looking at the cement, I’m wondering how anyone survives.”

According to the National Lightning Safety Institute, about 60 people are killed by lightning every year. Only about 10 percent of people who are struck by lightning are killed, according to the National Weather Service.

Babb said he went to church Sunday.

“And I was on time,” he joked.

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