I’ll give Dayton TV reporter Kelley King credit for sticking to her guns after what she posted this week on Facebook. She called out drivers who hit puddles while she was trying to do a report outside the Dayton VA Hospital for WDTN, Dayton’s NBC affiliate. King believes that drivers headed down Gettysburg Ave. “intentionally” hit puddles to drive water into her as she tried to do a report from the sidewalk. Even as people on Facebook laughed at her King took the heat and wasn’t going to be swayed into believing it was possible the drives didn’t do it on purpose.
Kelley is positive this wasn’t an accidental act. She wrote on Facebook:
I can’t believe how disrespectful some drivers are. I was shooting a couple stand-ups outside of the Dayton VA for a GOOD story about a program helping to improve services for vets. As I was standing there, DOING MY JOB… TWO cars drove by as fast as they could and splashed water on me… and it wasn’t accidental…I had a number of cars drive by before this that DIDN’T do that. I AM SOAKED. And it wasn’t like my day was over. As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in the newsroom with wet hair, a wet dress, and wet boots, my coat drying out, still putting together my story.
PSA For ALL drivers out there… When you see a reporter on the side of the road, do not intentionally drive up as close to them as possible to try to splash water. They are just trying to do their jobs and get through the day.
Of course being the Big J I am and being that I’m a Dayton native, I went looking into where Kelley was standing to see what was going on here. A Google Street View search shows us that Kelley was standing right at the storm drain with pavement that’s cracking and sinking. This is Dayton so we can also assume the drains are clogged up which means puddling on the road.
Kelley King was standing over a storm drain during her report / via Google Street ViewNotice what we have here just last summer…junk clogging up the drain! Clogs=deep puddles.
Gettysburg Ave. storm drain / via Google Street ViewKelley added in the comments section of her Facebook post:
For those of you who think I was close to the street… I was not. I’m on the sidewalk… near the grass… because I set up my camera and tripod in the grass. For those of you who have been near the VA, you know the sidewalks are wide. There was plenty of room… and as I said in my original post… other drivers drove by beforehand without this outcome.
I think we can all look at the video and the screenshots I’ve provided and come to the conclusion that this one is on Kelley. She was too close to that puddle because she needed to set the scene with the VA sign in the background. Then cars hit puddles because the drains aren’t draining. That’s life and she learned a lesson this week. I’ll give her credit for even getting out of her car in this area. Did I mention the station sent her out there by herself. Not good. This is the type of area where people disappear and are never seen from again.
Gettysburg Ave speed limit is 35 / via Google Street View
