Bob Simon Of '60 Minutes' Killed In Car Wreck

Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent and CBS News reporter Bob Simon was killed in a car wreck Wednesday night in New York City. The 73-year-old journalist died after his livery cab crashed on the West Side Highway in Manhattan, according to local media reports.

Simon was riding in a Lincoln Town Car traveling south when the car crashed into the back of a Mercedes-Benz and then plowed into a pedestrian median near 30th Street at about 7 p.m. EST, the New York Post reported.

The 23-year-old driver of the Mercedes told the New York Post that Simon’s driver was driving erratically. “He swerved into me,” the man reportedly said. “He hit me and he looked like he lost control of the car.”

Both Simon and his livery driver had to be cut out of the wreck. The former war correspondent was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The drivers of the Mercedes and the livery cab were not seriously injured, police told the New York Daily News.

Simon has earned scores of awards for his foreign coverage and field reporting, including 27 Emmys. The veteran journalist began his career at CBS News in 1967 as a reporter and assignment editor based in New York. Since 1996, he has contributed regularly to 19 seasons of “60 Minutes.”