$125 million lawsuit filed against The Weather Channel, estates of SW Missouri storm chasers killed in Texas crash

The mother of a driver who was killed during the March 28, 2017 crash that also killed southwest Missouri storm chasers Randall Yarnall and Kelley Williamson filed a $125 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Weather Channel and the estates of the two men Tuesday in U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Karen Di Piazza, the mother of Corbin Lee Jaeger who died when the storm chasers ran a stop sign and failed to yield to the Jeep he was driving, alleges Williamson and Yarnall were reckless and that the Weather Channel encouraged that recklessness.

From the lawsuit:

Williamson and Yarnall were well-known storm chasers for TWC and stars of the TWC Show Storm Wranglers. According to Williamson's Facebook profile, Williamson started working at TWC on February 26, 2016, listing his occupation as "Storm Chaser at the Weather Channel, covering all weather events via Live Stream as it is happening.'









Yarnall became Williamson's driving partner on April 9, 2016. On or about the summer of 2016, Williamson and Yarnall were approached by TWC to star in a new television show ultimately named Storm Wranglers in which Williamson and Yarnall, among other job duties, would operate the Suburban to record video footage to be used by TWC employees, to wit video editors, producers and directors of TWC, to produce the television show Storm Wranglers.

The concept of Storm Wrangers, according to a TWC news release was to portray Williamson and Yarnall as heroes who chased storms.

TWC's concept of presenting storm chasing as an adventurous, thrilling sporting event and to make its two stars "heroes" resulted in the violent death of young Corbin Lee Jaeger.

 Williamson and Yarnall were live streaming a storm for the Weather Channel and for their YouTube account when the accident occurred, according to the petition, with their vehicle operating at 70 miles per hour.

"The failure to stop at this stop sign was defendants' fourth such violation that day."All of the violations were captured on video, the lawsuit says.

The video ends abruptly just before the collision as the Suburban travels full speed towards the stop sign. The warning signs, as well as the stop sign itself, are all clearly visible and unobstructed through the lens of the video equipment being used and deployed by the TWC defendants.

At that time, defendants were attempting to track down and film tornadoes in the region, and at the time of the subject accident, it was raining. It is believed their speed at the time of driving through the stop sign and at impact with the Jeep was approximately 70 miles per hour. Notably, no one from TWC mentions or refers to the pair's blatant and repeated traffic violations during the video.

The lawsuit claims that the windshield on the storm trackers' vehicle was obstructed by the expensive Weather Channel equipment. It quotes from an interview Williamson gave to the podcast Storm Front Freaks on December 29, 2016.

If anyone even seen (the Suburban) they wonder how I get in it. I've got a pretty good-sized computer sitting here in front of me and one camera in the windshield and then I've got another console here that I run a camera that's actually on top of my vehicle.Then  I've got up on the dash a live view that I actually stream back to TWC with. It's kind of like crawling into a cockpit. There's not a lot of room.

In another interview cited in the lawsuit, Williamson said a lot of times he could see more through the camera lens than he could with his eyes.








The lawsuit alleges Williamson and Yarnall had a history of "reckless and dangerous driving" that was on display in their videos.

In just 14 of these videos, the pair runs 80 stop signs, four red lights and one out-of-service traffic light.

The lawsuit also notes Yarnall posted video that he took of a tornado through the driver's side window while he was driving.

Weather Channel employees often offered instructions to Williamson and Yarnall during their live streaming, the lawsuit claims, and hired them even though they were not meteorologists.

TWC knowingly two chicken farmers and cattle ranchers from Missouri without any emergency/first responder or meteorological training to star in their show. 

TWC then instructed there to barrel into dangerous weather conditions to obtain footage, needlessly endangering local residents fleeing impending catastrophe and trained first responders.

The Weather Channel was aware of the risk it was taking, according to the lawsuit. The producer of Storm Wranglers received a text message from another storm chaser December 4, 2016, offering a warning about Williamson and Yarnall.

As far as the Storm Wranglers: I understand the need and fact for "dumbing down" for the general public, but I'm gonna be honest here (and I hope you take no offense at what I am going to say please... the fact of the matter is that you have two very inexperienced, new and uneducated chasers ... talk about liability. See where I am going with this? I'm not gonna badmouth Kelley, but I'm not going to lie either.

Twenty-four days before the accident that killed Wililamson, Yarnall and Jaeger, the producer sent a message to the same storm chaser. She said she had forwarded the storm chaser's concern to her Weather Channel boss.

"I'm not sure if you happened to catch any of Kelley's movements, but he put himself in a VERY bad spot, live on air, so God forbid if anything happened, we would have seen it happen live on air ... NOT GOOD."

On the day after the accident, the producer messaged the storm chaser once more.

"Everything I told him about driving safer and not being so distracted and then telling you that I was worried that he was gonna kill someone or himself ... those are the exact messages I shared with you.

"And then it happens.

"So I am obviously in a way dark place right now. I know many of us are. I guess that's what killing me. I tried to tell him over and over. And then when I saw him yesterday near Paducah he pulls up and he was driving not Randy.

"I asked him why he was driving and not doing the filming in a joking matter. He just laughed.

"We talked about the storms and the day and then said our goodbyes and good lucks. He drove off. I remember thinking hope they are safe today and hope they have a good day."

The lawsuit asks for damages "of not less than $125 million." and a jury trial.

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