The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is now investigating an incident in which Tori Yorgey, a reporter for the television station WSAZ in West Virginia, was hit by an SUV during a live shot Wednesday night.
“The intent of this open investigation is to determine what occurred, what work rules the employer has related to the situation, and whether additional safety practices are needed,” Leni Fortson, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor, told Discrepancy Report Friday.
The news director for WSAZ did not immediately respond to two emails and a voicemail seeking comment Friday afternoon.
Yorgey was apparently working alone performing duties as a reporter and live camera operator when she was struck by an SUV on air during the 11 p.m. show.
“Oh my God, I just got hit by a car, but I’m OK,” Yorgey said repeatedly during the live shot. “You know what? It’s a one-woman band.”
After the collision, you can hear a woman, who Yorgey described as the SUV’s driver, ask her if she was all right.
“That’s live TV for you. It’s all good. I actually got hit by a car in college too just like that,” Yorgey said. “I am so glad I’m OK, you’re OK, you’re OK, we’re all good.”
Yorgey was reporting on weather conditions and a water main break, which she continued to do after being hit.
The reporter talked about the incident in a follow-up story that WSAZ, an NBC affiliate, aired Thursday. She explained that she was on the pavement of an apartment complex and not on the road when the collision happened.
“My boss took me to the hospital, and I did get checked out. Everything is OK,” Yorgey explained. “I am good, little bit sore but nothing major and no broken bones!”
After video of the incident went viral, Yorgey also appeared on NBC’s “Today” show and “America’s Newsroom” on Fox News Channel.
Discrepancy Report reached out to a number of broadcasting and journalism associations following the incident including the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), which has roughly 6,000 members and identifies itself as the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization.
“I know the dangers of the job,” Rebecca Aguilar, the SPJ’s president, said in an email.
She told Discrepancy Report she worked for 28 years in television news at seven stations. At six of those stations (Toledo, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Dallas) Aguilar said she worked as a reporter with a photographer.
She then included the following statement:
The incident that involved the WSAZ-TV reporter is a reminder that the MMJ (multimedia journalist) system also known as one-person-crew in TV news is hazardous to a person’s safety. We have seen TV news reporters who are working alone being put in dangerous situations. Several have become victims of not only car accidents, but also physical and verbal assaults. The dangers are an issue that television news managers and station owners should finally take seriously before a journalist is killed doing their job. It used to be that a television reporter was accompanied by a photojournalist on assignment. The two-person crew allowed the journalists to have each other’s back. While many television stations have moved to an MMJ system to save money, profits should never be the priority over the safety of a journalist.
On Friday night, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) which represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, and other media professionals issued this statement:
This incident highlights the dangers faced when employers ask journalists to perform live shots in the field by themselves. In the last few years, live reporting has become increasingly perilous and journalists have faced harassment and other dangers when reporting alone. We consider this to be a fundamental safety concern and urge all employers to end the practice of assigning solo live shots.
“I think this incident does highlight the dangers of solo reporting, and the risk associated with journalists who need to perform multiple jobs at once,” Lucy Westcott, emergencies director for the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists, told the Washington Post. A 2019 CPJ report identified solo reporting “as being one of the biggest risks to female journalists in the U.S. and Canada,” she explained.
The CPJ report cites Alison Baskerville, founder of ROAAAR, a U.K.-based organization that offers safety training that focuses on women’s safety and sexual violence, as saying that the U.S. was “one of the most dangerous places to work right now.”
The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA – formerly known as the Radio Television News Directors Association) also responded to the incident. The RTDNA identifies itself as the world’s largest professional organization devoted exclusively to broadcast and digital journalism.
RTDNA COO and Executive Director Dan Shelley tweeted the following statement Thursday night:
Yorgey tweeted Friday that it was her last day at WSAZ. On Jan. 12, she announced that she would be starting a new job as a night-time reporter at WTAE in Pittsburgh on Feb. 1.
