May 17th Chaser Accident near Lubbock

[Ben Holcomb]

I witnessed two chasers smash into each other on May 17th west of Wolfforth. Before you make judgements, please watch my video I put together today.

I have kept these chasers anonymous. They are welcome to post here and reveal themselves if they want. The names are not important. What's important is that everyone know what to do in an uncontrolled intersection.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Very eye opening video Ben. Glad neither party was seriously hurt, and it definitely could happen to any of us. What comes to mind for me in this situation...

Of course I'm armchair quarterbacking here, but if I was either party, I would zoom my Garmin GPS in to account for all cross roads like this. As I see myself on GPS approaching these intersections, I would approach very cautiously. I think this really is the only way to safely approach intersections that are especially hidden like this one was. I don't really know any other way to deal with this kind of issue.

Another issue is GPS not showing some of these roads in order to take precautions in advance.

This accident is just another reason to always pay attention and slow down. NOTE: In saying this, I'm not saying either party did anything wrong.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

These intersections are common in eastern CO...i always treat them as a yeild even though most are unsigned. Glad nothing more serious happened.

Be aware people, on not just the weather.

 

[Jeff House]

Thank you Ben. Interesting both cars had chase partners. I used to worry about solo distracted drivers. Most of the publicized accidents this year are pairs. Just goes to say (myself included) don't judge.

Pretty sure every state treats those intersections as yield. Even 4-way stop if another car is sighted. Drivers Ed is right, anticipate and drive defensively.

Anyway I hope the pax with injuries recovers soon and well. Props to these chasers, all four, no Twitter drama resulted.

 

[Jeff Duda]

It is probably only a matter of the white car being a few inches further forward and we are looking at (a) fatalit(y)(ies).

Cannot stress enough how important it is to pay attention to the road when chasing.

I say judge away - a police officer clearly thought there was enough there to issue citations. What is that, if not a judgment?

Just like the South Park voting campaign in the 2004 election - watch the road or die. It's only a matter of time before we have another chaser fatality from this exact same cause.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

It is probably only a matter of the white car being a few inches further forward and we are looking at (a) fatalit(y)(ies).

Yeah, you are not wrong. I was extremely worried on what I would find when I made it to that white car. From my perspective in real time, I thought there was a passenger side impact. I knew there was a female passenger in that car too, since we had passed each other a couple times, stopping to get a look at the storm and continuing on. What's scary is that I feel the white car was being pretty cautious. We both really were, but it's still easy to look at the storm or even at a map and miss something.

I heard from the driver of the white car on my YT comments saying that everyone will be OK, so that is good.

Cannot agree with this more and want to stress it again:

Cannot stress enough how important it is to pay attention to the road when chasing.

 

[B. Dean Berry]

I don't understand how such a thing exists. Even dirt farm roads in PA have stop signs and priority roads. Would it really cost that much to throw out some signs and posts?

 

[rdale]

Not really a need in such rural areas.

 

[TrumanBoyer]

Just my 2 cents
-- At any intersection
-- in the absence of traffic control (signs, lights, traffic cops, etc)
-- the vehicle coming from your left has the right of way.

This is why ALL roundabouts go counterclockwise
(in the northern hemisphere, yuk, yuk)
and you yield to traffic already in the circle.

rdale is right -- no need for signs -- y'all just need to know the rules,
and pay attention to traffic.

 

[Randy Jennings]

Just my 2 cents
-- At any intersection
-- in the absence of traffic control (signs, lights, traffic cops, etc)
-- the vehicle coming from your left has the right of way.

You are incorrect in Texas and every other state i know of. The driver on the right has the right of way. See Texas Transportation Code 545.151 section d:

Tex. Transp. Code § 545.151 – Vehicle Approaching or Entering Intersection

An operator approaching an intersection, shall stop, yield, and grant immediate use of the intersection, in obedience to an official traffic-control device,…

texas.public.law

In this case, both drivers are at fault because both vehicles failed to stop as required by Texas law. The white car also failed to yield the right of way to the vehicle on their right, so in theory they could have gotten 2 tickets intead of 1.

 

[Jeff Lieberman]

Ben mentions in his video that the cross street is "literally invisible." What?? An invisible, unmarked cross street?? How is anyone not familiar with the area supposed to stop/yield in time if the cross street can't be seen until it's too late?? It seems to me that the one-time cost of installing stop or yield signs on at least one of those streets (or maybe a sign warning that there's a hidden intersection ahead) would be far less than the ongoing cost of cleaning up accidents, property damage, and the inevitable injuries (and potential loss of life) at that intersection.

 

[rdale]

far less than the ongoing cost of cleaning up accidents, property damage, and the inevitable injuries (and potential loss of life) at that intersection.

Are you sure it's that big of a deal at that intersection? Texas has a LOT (one more time - LOT) of these roads.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Yeah, it was definitely hard to see. I was 2 miles north of whatever the main east/west paved road was south of that storm, and I had looked at possible east options prior. I almost went down the east/west dirt road one mile prior to the road with the accident, however, even looking at my GPS maps and looking for the road, I drove past it. I was expecting power lines or something to delineate it, and there was nothing. At least at that intersection, it was wide open.

I had decided after I missed that road that I'd just bail to the paved road south of me since it was only 2 more miles and I could make up the difference in time on pavement.

The erosion mitigation a mile south hid that road, and vehicle. For the whole minute prior on my dashcam, I never see any sort of indication there is a road or car coming at us from the right, other than the tree line. We're also much worse at judging distance than we think - How many times have people claimed to be 20 yards away from a tornado and there's 3-4 power poles between them and the tornado in the shot, or there's a field and a tree line obscuring the bottom? I think the only thing harder than judging distance is judging wind speed.

Jeff Lieberman - I think your question of "How is anyone unfamiliar with the area supposed to see or know?" is potentially the most dangerous part of storm chasing - Navigating and driving on roads unfamiliar to you. It's one of the biggest detriments to this hobby.

 

[JL Gacke]

I've been driving roads like these for over 50 years and chasing them many of those years and always expect to see a vehicle appear seemingly out of nowhere, even out in the tulies.
This is a good reminder that we can all double-check our SITUATIONAL AWARENESS.
As for who has ROW?
I never make an assumption that I have it or the other vehicle has it.
Just slow down and check, especially at a partially blinded intersection.
The 1-2 seconds are not going to impact my chase, and even if it does slow me down, at least we all go home alive.
As Jeff mentions, “just a few more inches.”
No kidding, this could have been tragic and as Ben mentions, it's just a totally sick feeling that I've had as well, running over to a bad accident or to a tornado destroyed house.
I hope newer chasers that perhaps don't have years under their belts maneuvering these kinds of intersections and roads are taking this incident to heart. Please...

 

[joel ewing]

I witnessed two chasers smash into each other on May 17th west of Wolfforth. Before you make judgements, please watch my video I put together today.

I have kept these chasers anonymous. They are welcome to post here and reveal themselves if they want. The names are not important. What's important is that everyone know what to do in an uncontrolled intersection.

I'm a Nebr. native and spent summers on my kin's farms around northeast Nebr. There are plenty of those open-4-way intersections on the remote dirt roads, and during summers we'd just BLAZE thru them like nobody's business. Oh my God, I think about how I was taught by my cousin when coming up to a 4-way at night....."just turn off your lights for a few seconds to see if any other cars are approaching the 4-way"...and that's just what everybody did. There were several wickedly fatal accidents due to that type of mentality. Honestly, in the video the guy in front of you Ben should have slowed waayyyy down and waited to see if there was any traffic on the other side of that young shelterbelt. It's so easy in such sparsely populated areas to think you're the only guy out there driving those back roads. It allows quick distractions to become ridiculously lengthy (like digging thru a box of CD's looking for the one you just GOTTA hear right now!) and often ends in sorrow.