Huge Lightning Blast Misses Man by Seconds

A motorist narrowly escaped death after a lightning bolt sent part of a tree hurtling towards the spot he was stood just five seconds earlier.

Bernard Williams, 55, from Pudsey, West Yorkshire, had just left his car to run into his house during a thunderstorm when a bolt of lightning sent a 10ft-long piece of wood hurtling across the road. It smashed the car's back window - where he had been stood moments before - and ended up in an alleyway next to his house after taking a tail light with it.

CCTV footage taken on the property's security camera shows Mr Williams arriving back home in torrential rain and then grabbing his gym bag before running towards the front door of the house. But just four seconds after leaving the car there is a flash and lightning hits the tree and blows it apart. Jagged pieces of wood can be seen flying across the road hitting the car and neighbouring houses. His wife, Alison, 43, watched the scene unfold and saw how close he came to being killed. She said: 'If he had been stood at the car seconds later he would almost certainly have been killed or maimed.'