Longtime CBS News reporter and 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon died in a car crash in Manhattan on Wednesday night, according to the Daily News. He was 73 years old.
According to reports, Simon was a passenger in car service's Lincoln Town Car, which rear ended a Mercedes driven by a 23-year-old man and then slammed into a median. The accident happened around 6:45 p.m. on 12th Avenue near W. 30th Street, police said.
Simon won four Peabodys and 27 Emmy Awards over his 50 year career. He'd worked for CBS news since 1967.
From his CBS News bio on their website:
"Bob Simon, the most honored journalist in international reporting, has been contributing regularly to “60 Minutes” since 1996. He was also a correspondent for all seven seasons of “”60 Minutes” II,” from January 1999 to June 2005, after which he became a full-time “60 Minutes” correspondent. The 2011-’12 season is his 16th on the broadcast.
Simon’s revealing interview with the rescued Chilean miners shed new light on their 69-day ordeal a half mile underground; his reporting in Tunisia brought “60 Minutes” viewers to the source of the “Arab Spring” uprising affecting so many Middle Eastern countries in 2011.
Simon’s extensive foreign coverage has earned him scores of major awards. His news magazine work has won him nine of his 24 Emmy awards, the latest five for “The King of Sushi”(2008), on the over fishing of bluefin tuna; “Curveball”(2007) the investigation of the Iraqi defector who provided the faulty testimony that eventually led America to war; “The Oil Sands” (2006), about extracting petroleum from Canada’s sand pits; “The Sea Gypsies” (2005), a report on the island-dwelling Moken peoples of Southeast Asia; and “Aftershock” (2005), about paramedics saving lives after an earthquake in Pakistan. Other winners broadcast on the Sunday edition are his profile of Italian actor-director Roberto Benigni (1999) and “Dirty War” (2000), a report about the Argentine government’s murderous campaign against dissidents."
Simon's last story for 60 Minutes was an interview with Ava DuVernay, the director of Selma, which aired on Feb. 8.
[Via Daily News]
