Lightning strikes 'won't hurt commuters'
Adrian LimTHE STRAITS TIMES
Friday, May 13, 2016
The steel frame of an MRT train keeps commuters inside safe from lightning strikes, and is like the protection offered when one is inside a car or an aeroplane, said experts.
Hence, a lightning strike, which was suspected to have crippled an SMRT train during a heavy thunderstorm on Wednesday afternoon, would not be dangerous to passengers inside the train.
SMRT did not confirm if the train was hit and said only that lightning struck in a location between Yio Chu Kang and Khatib stations along the North-South Line. The affected train had to be pushed to a station by another, and no one was hurt.
Professor Liew Ah Choy from the National University of Singapore's electrical and computer engineering department said there is no significant voltage difference - which causes electrocution - in a metallic enclosure such as a train cabin when lightning strikes.
Prof Liew said the steel frame of the train rises in voltage during a strike, and the current would flow around the metallic walls of the train car. "In the process of doing so, because the wall is electrically conducting, there is very little voltage difference generated," he explained.
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