Tori Yorgey can now say she was hit by a car on live TV, but kept doing her job.
Yorgey, a reporter for WSAZ in West Virginia was hit unexpectedly from behind as she filmed a segment in Dunbar, West Virginia about a broken water main.
Despite being knocked off her feet by the vehicle, she got back up and continued the segment.
You can see the moment here:
While her fellow journalists appreciated Yorgey, they pointed out the dangers many reporters now face when asked to do solo shots without a camera operator with them.
Wildly, Yorgey also said on camera this is the second time she'd been hit by a car like this. The first time happened in college.
The anchor, clearly unsure how to react, asked her if she was “bumped down low or hit up high” by the car.
She replied:
“I don’t even know, Tim. My whole life just flashed before my eyes. But this is live TV and everything is OK!”
New York Times writer Sopan Deb found the footage "harrowing."
"It’s a good opportunity to remind people that in most markets, TV reporters are solo, shooting, editing, lighting and doing everything else themselves, while being paid little to do it. it’s a safety hazard."
In fact, the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists says solo reporting is "one of the biggest risks to female journalists in the U.S. and Canada."
Lucy Westcott, emergencies director for the committee, says you can clearly see why in the footage.
“Ideally, the journalist would not have been sent out alone in the first place. . . . Just having a photographer out there with her, or another pair of eyes, may have prevented her from being hit by a car, which she of course could not see.”
Yorgey is thankfully alright and will soon begin a new job in Pittsburgh, but the lessons of the dangers of solo reporting remain an issue to be addressed.
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