Live trucks and their masts

Wednesday’s incident with the mast of a live truck up while the truck is on the move is not the first time it’s happened with a WSB vehicle. I and my photographer- partner, Dan Casey, did it several years ago. I was the guilty driver. Dan and I were trying to make our deadline for feeding a story for the 6 p.m. news. We were at spot in Cobb county from which we’d sent a micro-wave signal many times before. Dan was editing. I was manipulating the mast controls. But for some unexplained reason, the shot wasn’t getting in that day. We were only about 20 minutes from the station, so I told Dan to keep editing..that I would drive us to WSB. I was so focused on getting the story in on time that I drove out of the parking lot on to Cuimberland Boulevard near Cumberland Mall. The next thing I remember is a crash and a horn honking. The mast had hit a tree limb that came down on the fender of a car behind us. I quickly stopped, realized what had happened and lowered the mast. I gave the driver whose car the limb had damaged our insurance information,  removed the tree limb from the street, and continued to the station. I’ve often reflected on how much worse it could have been had we hit a power line as our colleagues, Leonard Raglin and Tom Jones, did Wednesday. At the same time, I expect Leonard and Tom are thanking God they were not seriiously hurt when 115-thousand volts traveled from the mast to the pavement beneath the truck.