Cameraman Barely Escapes After Police Chase and Crash Send Car Hurtling Toward Him

In today's culture of the "money shot," photojournalists will often place themselves in harm's way for a chance to get increasingly impressive footage. Recently, one cameraman was sent running for his life when a police chase and crash sent the suspect's car careening out of control directly toward him.

Victor Park is a cameraman based in Los Angeles. On February 27, he set up at the corner of Crenshaw and Wilshire in an attempt to capture a passing police chase. As the suspect vehicle approached the intersection, it struck another one (Park said he didn't notice the second car there), which sent it out of control directly toward him. Thankfully, he saw the events unfolding and managed to just get out of the way, the car missing him by what appears to be inches, its rotation stopped by the curb just enough to give him a margin to escape. You can see another angle of the close call below:

Thankfully, no one was seriously injured in the collision and the suspect was arrested at the scene. Nonetheless, it's a stark reminder of the danger of putting oneself in harm's way to get a shot. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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4 Comments

Lucky photographer, honestly I'd like to see what he got...

Living in LA I can't help though -if I ever saw so little traffic on Wilshire, I would go that fast too. :-j

In the video it shows his shot. Pretty shaky, understandably.

And now children, you know why photojournalists have a clean pair of underwear in their camera bag.

Have Fun,
Jeff

i guess he should not stand in the street next time. maybe he would have better footage if he used his head.