'I just got hit by a car': Journalist goes viral for continuing to report after on-air accident
A video of a reporter in West Virginia being hit by a car while doing a live report has gone viral on social media, with many talking about the depths reporters go to get the news out. In the video, the journalist, identified as Tori Yorgey, immediately pulls herself up and continues speaking on camera—despite having just been hit by a car.
“Oh my God. I just got by a car, but I’m okay!” Yorgey says as she falls to the ground. After she gets up, she laughingly says, “You know, that’s live TV for ya! It’s all good! I actually got hit by a car in college, too, just like that. I am so glad I’m okay!”
After her video went viral, Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 team (WTAE-TV) shared that Yorgey would soon be joining their team. In an interview, they spoke to her about the incident.
“I think it was it was all just adrenaline and shock, because, when she had hit me, all I saw for that split second was the car next to my face. And I thought she was running me over, so I was scared in the moment, but I wasn’t hurt,” Yorgey said.
Yorgey, a 25-year-old Philadelphia-area native and Penn State University graduate, was on one of her last assignments for NBC News affiliate WSAZ Wednesday when she was struck by the vehicle. She was reporting from the scene of a water-main break near an apartment complex in Dunbar, West Virginia, when a woman exiting the complex sideswiped her. The entire moment was caught in real-time.
Clearly shaken up, Yorgey still gave her report and continued working. In an interview with NBC News, she noted that the collision happened so quickly that she doesn’t even remember falling and getting back up.
“I was standing there looking at the camera, and as I’m literally about to speak, I just feel, like, a big ol’ hit in my back, and I just saw the car,” she said. “I thought I was going under the wheel,” she said. “I thought I was getting run over, in that moment. It was really, really scary.”
While she didn’t remember the moment exactly, it was caught live and shared thousands of times on Twitter. Many applauded Yorgey’s ability to keep calm continue her broadcast, while others noted the risks that reporters can face while doing their jobs—raising questions about how newsrooms and television stations can ensure the safety of their staff.
Because some people took to criticize her colleague’s reaction, Yorgey even clarified on Twitter that he could not see her on his monitor, and didn’t see what was happening at the moment she was struck.
After the incident, Yorgey says, the station took her to the hospital to get checked out. While she is sore, she has no broken bones or other serious injuries. Yorgey told NBC News: “I definitely love my job. I would not trade it for the world.”