On March 26, 2019, Karen Di Piazza filed a $125 million wrongful death suit against the Weather Channel. She claims the network ignored the reckless driving history of storm chasers which led in 2017 to a car crash which killed her son Corbin Lee Jaeger on March 28, 2017.
Jaeger was killed when the vehicle which was driven by Randy Yarnall and Kelly Williamson, two storm chasers crashed into the jeep he was in Spur, Texas.
Yarnell and Williamson were storm chasers who stared in the show “Storm Wranglers” on the Weather Channel. The duo was speeding on the highway at 70 mph in their Suburban Chevy live streaming to the Facebook Page of the Weather Channel while looking for a tornado. They ran a stop sign, crashed into the vehicle of Jaeger, and the video stopped.
During the live stream, Williams said “The storm is not far from us now. That is why it is dark.”
25-year-old Jagger was an Arizona storm tracker who worked for the National Weather Service. Yarnell who was 55-years old and 57-years-old Williamson died immediately.
The lawsuit claims that Yarnell and Williamson had a history of driving dangerously and the Weather Channel encouraged and ignored it. It also said that The Weather Channel knew driving habits, to the extent that it would be apparent and likely that Yarnell and Williams would not stop at a stop sign. Yarnell did just that and killed Jaeger.
According to USA Today, the attorney for Di Piazza said, Yarnall and Williamson regularly ran stop signs, went through traffic lights, and did not follow safety laws to obtain videos to show on the television show.
The force of the impact to catapult the Suburban over a fence which five-feet tall, 150 feet from the impact.
The lawsuit said the Weather Channel could have stopped Yarnell and Williams from driving and hire a driver for them. Instead, they made the two stars on television who broke laws, drove in ditches, private property, off-road, wrong side of the road, wrong way on the freeway, through stop signs and red lights to increase the danger to entice their audience which would ultimately sell advertising.
The result of the actions was Jaeger dying. His family is asking for $125 million.
Written by Barbara Sobel
Fox News: Weather Channel sued for $125M over death of man killed in ‘horrific’ Texas crash with storm chasers
BBC: Weather Channel sued for $125m over storm chase death
New York Daily News: Weather Channel sued for $125 million by mother of storm chaser killed in ‘horrific’ car crash
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Josh Greenstein’s Flickr – Creative Commons License
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