A truck was struck by lightning on I-15 in Utah — how common is that actually?

Saw a story trending about a truck getting hit by lightning on the highway and catching fire. Is this a freak one-in-a-million thing or does it happen more than people realize?

This specific incident happened July 29, 2026, on I-15 near Cedar City, Utah — driver Casey Pettus said he felt an intense jolt and a flash of light while driving through a downpour, and his 2021 Ford F-150 Hybrid was disabled and began smoking. He was able to pull over and get out before the truck became fully engulfed in flames, burning up within about 20 minutes. No one was injured, and the Utah Highway Patrol confirmed no other vehicles were involved. As for how common this is: a tow-truck operator who responded said that in eight years on the job, he'd never handled a lightning-struck vehicle before — so while it's not literally unheard of, it's genuinely rare. Vehicles are actually considered a relatively safe place to be during a lightning storm, since the metal frame typically conducts the strike around the outside of the car and down through the tires to the ground (a rolling Faraday cage, more or less) — but as this incident shows, a direct strike can still damage electrical/fuel systems badly enough to disable or even ignite the vehicle, which is why getting clear of it quickly if something like this happens is the right call.