Chaser Runs Stop Sign in front of me!

Funny to see a Texan herding cats in her driveway right before that stop sign. She had the look of "what the hell is THAT thing" o_O

Sorry, but to me it didn't sound like you were in any clear or present danger by pulling the guy over. Him continuing to drive like that all chase long would be the danger, and perhaps you prevented a tragedy but who knows. i see everyones point about staying out of these situations, as i'm not one to confront people, but you acted on emotion based on someone elses stupidity. Both your anger and his stupidity behind the wheel could have gotten you killed, so they cancel each other out in my opinion. I got no problems with what you did, especially if it helps negate this type of reckless behavior! If you are willing to accept the possible outcome and know the risks involved with flagging someone down to ream them out...well you are a big boy and you understand consequences could result in further actions.
 
The point is, you don't KNOW if you are in danger. Each to their own, I guess - but keeping calm and trying to avoid road rage, whatever the reasoning, is the best measure, I would say.
 
I'd say shooting someone the bird and shouting a few swears isn't much harm, especially when the person knows they screwed up. Now, stopping and getting out and walking up to the vehicle (which I did last Summer) is not recommended. It's extremely difficult to harness raw anger & emotion when someone almost kills you, because you get one shot at existing. I'd agree, it's dangerous to do what I did (and the guy did say he would go get his gun out of his car, to which I - stupidly - replied "You'll probably need a gun.").....but confronting someone while still inside the vehicle seems reasonable, if you're that angry. The dude from my aforementioned altercation and I actually shook hands at the end because I can talk my way out of just about anything, but others might not be so fortunate.

That said, I think it's a little overzealous to be piling onto Neal for sharing his experience. I was way more angry about the asshole who blew the stop sign than I ever was worried for Neal's reaction. Guess it's all about how you're wired, and I'm allergic to bullshit.
 
To me, we have to police ourselves and others, but we have to do it in a way that brings a positive experience. If you see another chaser doing something wrong, cussing and flipping the bird will do nothing but make both parties angry, and 9 times out of 10, nothing positive will come out of the situation.

I had a chaser pass me on Hwy 60 last year near White Deer TX. He was going at least 90-100 in a 75 mph zone. I got some info and found his phone#. Instead of acting like a maniac, I calmly told him what he did wrong, and the possible consequences of his actions. I told him I was a chaser as well, and we have to act professional because we are in the spotlight more than ever. He was a young chaser, but he responded well to my phone call, and we both remained respectful throughout the conversation. Hopefully we both learned something that day.
 
Such was our concern with the near misses and fatalities occurring due to some chasers having tunnel vision and thinking a tornado is more important than a life that the team at www.tracknwatch.com have now introduced a major update to our streaming and tracking platform where all streams are automatically recorded and available to the chaser to download at anytime.

Basically a streaming dash cam. We will lose chasers because of this but our aim is to keep the roads safe for those chasers who want to do the right thing. Watch the comments on our Facebook page about how clothes feature is and thanks to the management of Stormtrack for promoting safe chasing
 
So last week, on Thursday, I was up in Oklahoma chasing West of Guthrie. We were behind the best storms and knew we couldn't catch up, so I resolved just to stick around that area and watch some smaller storms. We noticed some interesting behavior. One guy in a bid Dodge truck tailgated me until I slowed down to about 10 and forced him to pass. The roads were slick, covered with rain and marble-sized hail. Then we came up on a minivan with a net over his windshield that just stopped in the middle of the road to watch a storm. There was no place to pull over, so why not just stop in the lane! The scariest moment was when we had to stop at a red light setup for construction on a bridge. There were two storm chasers in front of us, and another one in a Suburban behind us, all stopped for the red light. All of a sudden we heard a screeching sound, like an eek eek eek eek, and I saw a blur go by me on the right side on the shoulder. A Jeep hadn't realized we were stopped I guess and he went by us at a high rate of speed, then down a steep drop off and through a wheat field before stopping way ahead of us. I think he would have hurt the guy in the Suburban badly if he had hit him. Due to being in a Jeep, he was able to drive out of a wet field and join the line behind us again. To be fair, I'm not sure he was chasing storms, but I'm sure he was distracted. Be careful out there!
 
We do need to be careful how we handle things. I'll tell you one thing, even if I do something wrong, I'm still going to defend myself if I need to. Someone comes at me with a knife, It's not going to end well for them I promise! And I'm not talking about a gun, I don't need one.
 
Well, sigh... :)

No, it wasn't road rage. I didn't chase him down. I turned down the same road he overshot down. He stopped as soon as he could pretty much. Probably to check his shorts. I was mad cause he was a Storm Chaser. I was mad cause he came within 2 sec of killing the person in front of me and 15, maybe 10 sec from killing me.

Take a xanax, someone said. From my 40 years chasing, seems like a LOT of you need to take something on chase. Chill the hell out and not speed past me with your Channel 42 sticker at 85 in a 65 when the storm is only severe warned and 40-60 miles away. So... wow...

Thanks for the support and understanding of where I was trying to come from. Much less thanks to those that construed it into road rage.

So screw it. Speed like hell folks. Play with your radar and gadgets while driving. I'm sure you won't miss any stop signs.
Cause after 40 years, or 42? chasing tornadoes, I think I might be done with it cause of.... well... guess.

BTW. Neither I, nor the moron chaser that ran the stop sign, nor his female Nav got out of any car.
So.... byte me on road rage you ASSumers...


sigh.

Road rage. How about common freakin sense rage? Yahoos...
 
Where have you been?! This topic has been gathering dust since last May. No one is arguing the fact that the guy was driving like a knuckle head, just that there are better ways to handle explosive situations on the road. We don’t want to read that the Shaggy Buffalo was shot on a dirt road in rural Oklahoma some day.
 
The problem is this shit happens all the time. I don't know if confronting these people in anger is helpful or even worth the risk. If you get it on camera you can report it to the police, but I wouldn't expect it to be enough for them to want to take action in a lot of cases. I think the best thing is for the community to share these stories to remind us all to drive defensively. Even if you don't run stop signs, it's important to remember that it happens a lot on country roads. You can't control the carelessness of other drivers, so you have to do things like slow down and cross-check each time you approach an intersection, even when you don't have a stop sign. It sucks that chaser reputation gets dragged through the mud when these careless bozos kill or maim others, but you can at least use it as a reminder to make a conscious effort to drive defensively and keep yourself safe.
 
Last year Warren Faidley's team and I relayed to each other via Ham Radio when we were approaching an intersection while chasing. You just can't ever be too safe when people are distracted on the road these days.
 
Yes, and I'm no longer taking for granted that intersections with poor visibility are clear, not just from chasers, but more so, locals. I've approached or passed several no / low visibility intersections over the last 30 years of chasing and had vehicles blow through the stop signs either in front or behind me.
 
I remember growing up in rural Nebraska that every few years a well known farmer would either get killed or end up seriously injured in a car crash at an intersection near their home. I think they drive those farm roads so often and it becomes such a monotonous thing to them that they become way too lax about the dangers of running stop signs at familiar intersections. So when chasers show up to the locale it becomes even more dangerous because they’re running stop signs as well in an unfamiliar place.

My point is it isn’t always two chasers who can tangle at an intersection, it can also involve a local who isn’t paying close enough attention to what they’re doing. Nonetheless, it becomes extremely dangerous with a bevy of chasers across the landscape and the more cautious we can all be the better off everyone will be in the long run.
 
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