Warren Faidley
Supporter
Yes, I agree that customers want an exciting experience, and yes, hail can happen. I don't have a problem with that. The problem I have is when it's openly promoted like some kind of circus ride. As I noted in my original post, we don't know how it happened, and that's fair. It could happen to me or any chaser / tour group. My question was why were they there in the first place. Was it a gross miscalculation, vehicle malfunction or something else. This is fine any maybe even fun if you are a couple of chasers who know the risks, but even with wavers and acceptance of risks, tour owners do have some responsibility to keep their clients safe.
Chasing is not insured like an amusement park. Here is why. Theme parks are controlled environments where a magnitude of safety checks and regulations reduce the risks, or at least help lower the liability. With chasing, as underwriters have told me, is conducted on public roads where anyone can be involved, participating or not. There are no standards, safety regulations, checks, licensing, etc. Yet. Underwriters have a hard time writing policies when there are no safety nets or regulations to protect them. In addition, there are not enough tour companies to make a profit for most insurers, so you already have limited choices. I have family in the legal / insurance / injury attorney business and I've been told that a van load of injured or killed tourists could involve multi-million dollar claims. And what are attorneys going to do, they are going to pull up Facebooks posts. Very few insurers or underwriters want to risk that. You have to remember that storm chasing was not a highly visible (documented) entity until social media, and a few mega chasers have defined it to their own liking no matter if we like it or not.
As for insurance: I had an editorial writer plan a chase with me in May. His company could not find an insurer to cover him while chasing. (They required their own insurance). For me, this was a nightmare. I spent about 2 hours per chase morning haggling with underwriters trying to get him covered. Those who chased with me know the story. To make a long story short, I was finally able to contact several underwriters and insurers who said chasing "was becoming too dangerous," and they would need a month or so to re-write the existing policies. I was eventually able to find an insurer in the UK, although they first required an "evaluation of risks and how each risk was to be resolved." My gut feeling is that this will eventually trickle down to the major companies. I suggest some of them chime in.
So why does it matter that some chasers are now openly promoting dangerous stunts as part of their tour business? Because it will eventually effect all of us, business or privately. Pandora's box is wide open now. If you are a tour group owner, you better be ready to promote close calls and risky tactics because it's the wave of the future, the wave of the future....
And yes, I agree with the post that this mostly concerns business interests ATM. I suppose it would have eventually happened anyway, regardless of complaints.
And yes, this is the way storm chasing is headed and I doubt it can be stopped. Dave Hoadley was right, it turned into a sport. But I go even further and predict chasing will eventually become extremely difficult to execute. Rental cars will be impossible to rent for chasing and they won't be insured, law enforcement will crack down and things we cannot image will pretty much ruin it. We've already seen road blocks and insurance issues. What's next?
W.
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