Ok, I struggled with posting this, but I feel it needs to be done. I watched Mike Gribble's steam for about an hour earlier. He was on one of the earlier storms east of hillsboro. I observed some very serious, and quite dangerous traffic violations on his steam. At one point, he passed a school bus and probably 10 other cars on a double yellow with cars oncoming. He also passed 5 or 6 cars in a left turn lane, zipping back into the lane narrowly avoiding a head on collision. He blew through several stop signs, including a four way in which again he almost caused a collision.
I'm not one to call folks out, or go around pointing fingers and getting into other peoples business. However, this crossed the line. It was wreckless, and put innocent folks in danger.
Code of ethics??? Thats funny!!!!
I guess I am just not understanding this.....We have had everything from Sean driving west in the east bound lane of I-70 in 2008 with traffic almost hitting the TIV to a tour company getting hit directly by one of the Wakita tornadoes and getting their guests injured to Reed and company driving/chasing with no lights on in the dark just last week. All of these events were seen on national TV, youtube or the Discovery Show with very little or no care at all. In fact, many people were screaming how good the video was/is. Now we have a thread regarding what was heard on someones audio stream and IMO obviously taken way out of context much less by a newbie chaser (and I do not mean any disrespect when saying that)
I am all about calling someone out if needed, a prime example would be the thread I started about those chasing with no lights on. I even took much heat with e-mails and PMs regarding how I "outlined" the incident by the TVN crew about chasing with no lights on yet they were the one's who posted said video to begin with. The fact of the matter is that people are going to do and say things that others, including myself, are not going to agree with. People are going to do stupid and unsafe things just to get the shot. It is what stormchasing has become plain and simple and if we were all being truthful with ourselves it is exactly the reason why we tune in every week in October and watch Discovery. We want to see that "good video". Yes we will bitch and piss and moan about how unsafe it is at the time, starting threads here or blogging about it but really it is the reason why we tune in to a show that is in its 5th season that IMO should have already run its course yet due to ratings it is still ongoing.
As far as Mikey Gribble......he is more than a seasoned chaser and although I have not seen the video yet, I suspect there is way more to this story than what meets the eye. While Mikey and I have had issue with each other in the past, he is a good chaser who I respect very much. In the years that I have known him I cannot remember him doing something that was unsafe period. He is just not that kind of chaser. Would he speed? I am sure he has as most of us have and will do in the future but as far as "almost caused a collision" I am not sure I buy the story. Again, I have to believe that there is more than what meets the eye here.
As far audio on a stream, the same folks almost got eaten by the Yazoo City wedge event last year simply due to the fact that they had no idea what they were doing IMO. This is where the word newbie comes to mind. And again I mean no disrespect when saying that as we were all newbs ourselves once. Uncle Chuck used to have a saying that went something like this: "Let Darwinism control itself" and for once I couldn't agree more with ol uncle Chuck.
As people have said already, the simple way to cure this problem is to turn the audio off. It does not get any easier than the off button.
James, I look forward to seeing some wonderful pics from this event, I saw you were pretty close and am excited to see some pics.
