Former SP Fire Chief Bensen’s truck
hit by lightning in Paso Robles
July 24, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Former Santa Paula Fire Chief James Bensen certainly has had adventures over the years but nothing like what happened Sunday when he and his dog Buster were traveling on Highway 101 during the storm that moved through Southern California.
The Ford truck driven by Bensen, now of Paso Robles, was hit by a lightning strike that knocked him and his dog for a loop and totaled the truck.
The duo was returning from Templeton where Bensen delivered a birthday present for his 16-year-old granddaughter when the lightning hit: “I could not believe the noise and the windshield cracked!” said Bensen, who did not know at the time what happened.
“My ears were ringing, Buster had tears in his eyes,” from the sound as Bensen tried to maneuver the suddenly unresponsive vehicle off the road.
“I’d hit my head on the rearview mirror and my chest on the steering wheel and I’d lost all control in the truck, it fried the electrical system — everything! — so I had to wrestle with the steering and use the emergency brake,” to stop.
Bensen said, “A guy ran up and banged on the window, yelling ‘are you all right?’ I told him, ‘not really…what the hell happened?’ And he said ‘lightning hit your truck dead center!’ ”
Bensen suffered a slight concussion and whiplash, “Nothing compared to what happened to my truck, it’s totaled…that lightning just went through it and fried all the electrical and then out to the street and blew a hole in the 101 Highway!”
The lightning strike also cracked Bensen’s windshield and ripped the antenna off, along with the “fried” power steering and power brakes.
When emergency responders arrived they were amazed at Bensen’s ordeal — and close call with Mother Nature.
“The female paramedic looked at me and said, ‘okay Jim, what did you do that made God so mad at you?’ And a CHP Officer said I’d better make sure that I buy a few lottery tickets…’ ”
The conversations had to wait though until after Bensen’s son Eric, called by his father from the truck, arrived on scene: “They told Eric ‘could you please go get the dog, he won’t let us near your dad…’ ”
Bensen said another CHP Officer told him that in his 35 years of patrolling the highways he had never heard of a moving vehicle being struck by lightning.
“All the research I’ve done with the fire department and people I’ve talked to they’ve never heard about someone being in a vehicle going 55 miles per hour down the road getting struck by lightening.”
The incident has one unexpected side effect — fame.
“Oh, I’ve been getting calls from all over the United States,” friends and family wanting to hear about the 78-year-old Bensen’s adventure.
“Cal Fire called and wants me to come out and give a seminar,” about the incident said Bensen, Santa Paula’s volunteer fire chief until he retired in 1988.
But Bensen is beginning to suspect the aftermath is even more of a story:
“Oh, they couldn’t find my insurance policy, I had to rent a car and the weekly rate I was quoted turned out to more than double with added charges, somehow they towed my truck, which I just had spent $1,000 on, from Paso Robles to Bakersfield — Bakersfield! — and it has my toolbox in it with a couple of thousand dollars worth of tools…and it just goes downhill from here! It was a real comedy of errors!”
His 2004 Ford truck with 113,000 and the recent $1,000 of work is totaled, and Bensen is wondering if the insurance will provide for something suitable to tow the 30-foot trailer he and Buster have been traveling throughout the US and Canada in since his wife Lael passed in 2009.
Bensen’s travels have included visits to Santa Paula, and he even attended the 2013 Moonlight at the Ranch, the annual fundraiser for the Santa Paula Police & Fire Foundation.
“I could not be more proud of Paul Skeels,” who became Santa Paula’s first full-time fire chief in 1989, “and what he’s done for the community with that fire department…and he was even the acting City Manager for more than a year. And I’m proud of the work Fire Chief Rick Araiza has done also…people really are getting a lot better service.”
He’s eager to return to Santa Paula — his granddaughter is a cheerleader for Templeton High School, which will play against the SPHS football team this season — but he’s worried about transportation.
Said Bensen, “The guy I rented the car from said I should call Ford, tell them the scenario about being struck by lightning and that I would be glad to do a commercial about how safe and study their trucks are…it sure is true, isn’t it?”
