NEW YORK, NY -- Bob Simon, the longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent and legendary CBS News foreign reporter died suddenly Wednesday night in a car accident on the West Side Highway in New York City. The award-winning newsman was 73. By the time officers arrived at the scene of the accident, Simon -- seated in the rear of a Lincoln Town Car -- was unconscious and unresponsive, with injuries to his head and torso, according to the NYPD. He was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The vehicle's injured driver was listed in stable condition. The Town Car collided with another vehicle at a red light, police said, and then struck a stanchion dividing traffic.
Bob Simon died Wednesday evening from injuries sustained in a car crash on the West Side Highway in New York. PHOTO: WPIX
Simon's career spanned five decades, from covering the war in Vietnam to a piece on "60 Minutes" this past weekend on the Academy Award-nominated film "Selma." He covered the war in Vietnam and was on one of the last helicopters out of Saigon, according to his CBS News biography.
In 1991, Simon was captured by Iraqi forces at the start of the Gulf War. He and three colleagues spent 40 days in prison, an experience he later wrote about in his book "Forty Days."
Among his many awards are four Peabodys, 27 Emmys and the Overseas Press Club's highest honor for a body of work, the biography read.
Bob Simon joined "60 Minutes" in 1996, and has been reporting with the network since 1967. CBS/60 Mnutes
"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, and I'll tell you it's very hard to talk about him in the past tense, but Bob was for the last five decades, simply one of the best, in my opinion ... at getting a story, telling a story, writing a story and making it simply unforgettable," said CNN's Anderson Cooper, who worked with Simon at "60 Minutes."
Simon and his wife, Françoise, have one daughter, who is a producer for "60 Minutes."
This is a developing story.
***reporting from CBS and CNNWire contributed to this report***
