Veteran news correspondent Bob Simon dies late Wednesday night after 73 years of life.
CBS News reports that Simon was killed in a car crash in New York City.
Simon has served almost five decades at CBS. Simon spent the past two decades as a contributor to 60 Minutes ,” the last chapter of a nearly 50-year career at CBS, starting out as a reporter and assignment editor in New York in 1967.
The New York native earned scores of awards for his work, including multiple Emmys, a Peabody and multiple Overseas Press Club Awards. His most recent Emmy win came for the 60 Minutes segment “Joy in the Congo.”
The New York Post have devastating video coverage of the crash scene that was reported on their twitter feed. Simon was the passenger in a hired car that lost control and slammed into another vehicle near West 32nd Street and 12th Avenue in Manhattan at 6:45 p.m. ET, the New York Fire Department said. Simon was transported to a hospital where he died.
Image via Twitter from New York Post
"It's a terrible loss for all of us at CBS News," 60 Minutes Executive Producer Jeff Fager said in a statement. "It is such a tragedy made worse because we lost him in a car accident, a man who has escaped more difficult situations than almost any journalist in modern times. Bob was a reporter's reporter. He was driven by a natural curiosity that took him all over the world covering every kind of story imaginable. There is no one else like Bob Simon. All of us at CBS News and particularly at 60 Minutes will miss him very much."
Simon’s most recent news segment for 60 minutes was about the Oscar nominated movie Selma and director Ava DuVernay.
A stunned DuVernay wrote on Twitter late Wednesday after hearing the news.
Image via Twitter from Ava DuVernay
Simon is survived by his wife, Francoise, and daughter, Tanya Simon, who is a producer for 60 Minutes.
Rest In Peace Bob Simon (1914-2015)
image courtesy of INFevents.com