SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
[...] Kelley Gene Williamson and Randall Yarnall were heading north, directly towards the storm. At the time, on 28 March 2017, they were covering the event for the Weather Channel programme Storm Wranglers. [...] Yarnall was driving his Chevrolet truck at about 70mph (113km/h) at the time, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday. A video the friends were live-streaming for the Weather Channel's Facebook page showed they made no attempt to stop at the junction.
The footage cut out a split second before a Jeep driven by Corbin Jaeger drove westbound into the junction. Jaeger, who had the right of way, was driving away from the storm.
Williamson, Yarnall and Jaeger - a respected storm chaser working for the National Weather Service - were all killed on the spot.
The lawsuit, filed by Jaeger's mother, seeks up to $125m (£95m) in damages. It puts the blame firmly at the door of Williamson and Yarnall, whom it calls "habitually reckless and dangerous", as well as the Weather Channel.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47720417
(Score: 4, Touché) by kazzie on Monday April 01 2019, @09:48AM
"Ambulance Chasers Face Storm as Tornado Hits Their Home"
(Score: 4, Informative) by lentilla on Monday April 01 2019, @11:01AM (2 children)
(That summary was nigh-on impossible to parse. Ditto the bbc link. Here is what I understand: YARNELL with passenger WILLIAMSON were driving at high speed into the storm. JAEGER was running from the storm. All three are "storm chasers". YARNELL ran a red light, there was a collision. All three died. JAEGER's mother is suing for damages from YARNELL's employer.
- - -
Some were driving towards the storm, others driving away. This isn't a movie - when you decide to quit, the road out isn't guaranteed to give you safe passage to a saccharine denouement - you may well be killed by a stray boulder, lump of two-by-four or a SUV piloted by other adrenaline junkies.
Three people died doing what they loved - their raison d'être [wiktionary.org]. Those that are left behind should remember; respect; and be comforted by that.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01 2019, @12:04PM
And thanks to the cowboys livestreaming themselves for the creation of a sensational TV series that's sure to make a few elites at the top even more moola while doing approximately jack shit for science, we know that the two cowboys ran a red light, killed themselves, and killed a professional working in the interests of the public and of science.
Seems to me we can cancel the storm chaser thing out of both sides of the equation, and so we're left with a couple cowboys who were not paying attention to the road, ran a red light, and committed vehicular homicide. Throw the book at both their estates and their employer, since they were on the clock.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday April 01 2019, @02:34PM
Easy enough to parse to get the gist: The driver was not driving with full attention to road conditions nor with respect to lawful speeds and caused a fatal accident. The other driver, while having the right of way, was not perceptive enough to realize that anytime there is a storm there will be persons driving without full attention to road conditions. (People blow stop signs and cause accidents even in perfectly clear weather).
Even in "perfect" conditions storm chasers get killed. Trained spotters (which I'm sure they were as well) learn this, but actually getting a lesson in the eternal vigilance needed is costly. People will still chase storms for various reasons.
The real lesson is to do our best to learn from their errors and continue the mission of providing actually necessary ground intelligence (the reasons spotters still are needed by NWS) in the least risky manner possible.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01 2019, @06:26PM
Bla bla bla! The graveyards are full of people who had the right of way! Welcome to the club! Give the guy a number.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01 2019, @08:30PM
Cash grabs like this are why we need to bring back French Weregild laws. Set a limit to how much a life is worth in compensatory damages and allow it to be adjusted for someone's wealth because there are rich people that that's pocket change to.