LocalNewser standupkid's dispatches from the frontlines of local news

Worst Live Truck Operator…Ever?

We've all been to the safety lectures and we've read the bright red and black warning signs on the sides of the trucks.  We've committed "look up and live" to memory, whether we wanted to or not.  We've adjusted to screaming alarms designed to warn us of the chance of our mast connecting to something scary and potentially deadly.  And we've gone through the irritation of flashing dashboard lights and deafening horns that go off when you don't stow the mast properly and replace the pin before heading home after a liveshot.

It is, after all, common sense.  You work in a place like Florida as I've done, with its sudden lightning, and you know there's a time when news takes a backseat and "we're bringing the mast down" is about all you can tell a suddenly suicidal producer as their 6 o'clock lead vaporizes.  Sorry...didn't have a chance to feed the package either.  Maybe it'll clear up!

But this story out of Wisconsin?  That's no judgment call.  That's just dumb.  There's nothing I can add but to give you the takeaway quote from the WTMJ account of the CBS 58 livetruck that woke neighbors as it snapped power lines while driving down the street the other day:  "truck operator Blake Arnold with CBS 58 failed to notice his mast was still extended following a live report. He drove North on 35^th Street and hit multiple high voltage transmission lines."

Failed to notice?