Three storm chasers were killed Tuesday afternoon near Lubbock, Texas. They were in pursuit of a tornado-warned storm in Dickens County, Texas. One vehicle apparently ran a stop sign and collided with another vehicle.
This is a horrible accident involving people who were more than just storm chasers. They were also family members and friends and human beings. But at the moment of this tragedy, they were storm chasers first. One of the vehicles was streaming live video of the chase, and it was apparent that the driver was not focused on the road as he failed to slow down for a “dangerous intersection ahead” sign followed by a “stop ahead” sign followed by a regular stop sign.
The video eerily ends as the vehicle blows through the stop sign at road speed. Car accidents happen for a lot of reasons, and drivers can be distracted for a lot of reasons. But at the risk of being prematurely judgmental, it appears the pursuit of glorious video might have been a primary cause of this two-car, three-fatality wreck.
