Holy fucking shit. WYFF anchor and photojournalist dead after tree falls on SUV

[Dennis Donovan]

http://www.wyff4.com/article/wyff-news-4-anchor-photojournalist-tragically-killed-when-tree-falls-on-suv/20945002

POLK COUNTY, N.C. —
WYFF News 4 anchor Mike McCormick and WYFF News 4 photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer died Monday when a tree fell on their SUV.

The accident happened on Highway 176 in Polk County while they were covering the impact of heavy rain in that area.

Video: Polk County authorities give update on accident
Tryon Fire Chief Geoffrey Tennant said the engine of the SUV was running and the transmission was in drive when authorities arrived at the scene about 2:30 p.m.

He said the tree that fell on the SUV was about 3 feet in diameter and had stood back off the road.

Tennant said the ground was saturated and the tree's root system failed.

"I have never seen an event like this one," Tennant, who has been in fire service in Polk County for 44 years, said.

[benld74]

1. I heard that on the news, terrible

[Nay]

2. Terrible, all right. But it's not as uncommon as this guy thinks. Earlier this year,

in the neighborhood next to ours, saturating rains made the ground so shaky that a tree fell on a 39-yr-old woman who was going to the car with her kid to take the kid to school. She was killed right in front of her child; the child was uninjured. So awful.

[MissB]

4. Similar thing happened in our neighborhood two years ago.

Sadly it was the opposite outcome.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. Yikes. Terrible.

[murielm99]

5. They send these newspeople out

to stand around in storms and get rain soaked and windblown. I have often thought that they are sending them into these situations unnecessarily. We know when it is storming out there.

I am sorry for their deaths. Maybe some of the news stations will rethink what they are doing.

[Demovictory9]

6. omg. horrible

[Raine]

7. Awful..

so sad