Storm Chasers’ Truck ‘Smashed to Bits’

The three storm chasers killed while tracking a massive twister in Oklahoma died "doing what they loved," Tim Samaras' brother said on his Facebook Sunday night. A jarring image of the flattened car that they were riding in sheds new light on their final moments. Authorities say the truck was "crushed like a tin can ... smashed to bits." Close friends of the three—Tim Samaras, 55, his son Paul Samaras, 24, and Carl Young, 54—are blaming the fatal incident on the sudden, deadly left-hand turn made by the twister. Samaras, who had received 18 grants from the National Georaphic Society, founded TWISTEX, a project dedicated to getting more scientific information about twisters.