David Dobrik sued for $10 million by Jeff Wittek following near-fatal accident

24 June 2022, 17:35

Jeff Wittek shares injury update after his David Dobrik stunt accident in 2020

By Jazmin Duribe

In the clip, Jeff hits the side of an excavator being controlled by David and falls into the water.

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YouTuber David Dobrik is being sued for $10 million in damages by former Vlog Squad member Jeff Wittek following his near-fatal excavator accident.

In 2020, Jeff shattered his skull and almost lost his eye after a stunt for a YouTube video using an excavator controlled by David went horribly wrong. Doctors told Jeff that he could have been killed and he was left with multiple serious injuries that required surgery.

Jeff opened up about his injuries and road to recovery in his YouTube series 'Don't Try This At Home'. He also shared a snippet of footage from the stunt (Jeff has previously said that he doesn't want to show the full footage because he didn't want his family to see it.)

In the short clip, Corinna Kopf swings on the rope, before telling David to let her down because he had started spinning too fast. Jeff then has his go and as Jeff begins to swing around, David appears to speed up which sends Jeff flying through the air. The complete footage is not shown in Jeff's video, but he then appears to hit the side of the steel machine and falls into the water. You can see him dangling from the rope by one leg.

David Dobrik sued for $10 million by Jeff Wittek following near-fatal accident. Picture: Amy Sussman/KCA2021/Getty Images for Nickelodeon, Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

As of June 2022, Jeff has had nine surgeries on his eye stemming from the "myriad of injuries" he sustained while David was allegedly spinning the crane at "unsafe speeds".

Now, Jeff is seeking $10 million in damages from David for "general negligence and intentional tort". Details of the lawsuit were obtained by PEOPLE and Jeff claims that David's actions made him to miss out on work and incur expensive hospital bills because of the extent of his injuries.

Jeff has now confirmed that he and David are no longer friends. Following the accident, Jeff and David's appeared to be on good terms. David actually visited Jeff in hospital dressed as Heath Ledger's Joker in a nurse's outfit upon Jeff's request. However, Jeff admitted that he started feeling resentful towards David while he was recovering in hospital.

David has been adamant that the whole stunt was actually Jeff's idea. "I think one of the main reasons Jeff is bummed with me right now is because he saw me do an interview where I said something that I promised him I'd keep between us. He's pissed that I broke a promise," he said on his VIEWS podcast in March. "He's like, 'Can you promise me one thing? Can you just promise that no one ever knows that this was my idea?'"

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He continued: "He got hurt because I was driving. That's it, and I fucking know that, and like I said, any chance I would get, I would take that back… That'll be the biggest regret of my life. My entire life. I really hope there's not a moment that I regret as much as that one."