Local TV news sees a lot of weirdness sometimes, but it’s really unusual to see a reporter suing companies over a stunt that went wrong. That’s what’s going on with Dave Crawley, a reporter for Pittsburgh CBS affiliate KDKA (he’s been there since 1988; the station’s also popped up here over “Tom Brady, Known Cheater” and “They really need to tone it down!”). Crawley is now suing the EQT Three Rivers Regatta, Red Bull and a marketing agency over an August 2017 stunt around the Red Bull Flugtag event in Pittsburgh. Here’s more from The Associated Press:
A television reporter is suing over injuries he says he suffered during a promotional stunt in which he plunged 22 feet into a river in a homemade flying machine.
The lawsuit filed last week in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania by KDKA-TV reporter Dave Crawley names the EQT Three Rivers Regatta, Red Bull and a marketing agency. The station is not a defendant.
…Crawley, who was 70 at the time, wore a life vest and helmet for his plunge to the Allegheny River, but the lawsuit alleges he landed on his face and front and was left with spleen and diaphragm injuries, as well as a traumatic brain injury.
The suit says he stopped working later that month after “collapsing while covering a story.”
The Flugtag event has been going on since 1991, and travels to different cities each year to feature different teams’ homemade flying machines. Here’s video of Crawley’s 2017 plunge from KDKA:
As per the AP, Red Bull’s comment so far is that they’re still “gathering information and reviewing details” of the lawsuit. But it’s certainly interesting to see this kind of a lawsuit from a local news reporter. We’ll see how it turns out.
[The Associated Press; KDKA on YouTube]
