Photo: Amy Sussman/KCA2021/Getty; Morgan Lieberman/FilmMagic
David Dobrikis being sued for damages related to ex-Vlog Squad memberJeff Wittek’s near-fatal injuries.
Wittek, 32, previously said he suffered a broken skull, facial fractures and eye damage after being swung on a rope tied to an excavator while filming a video with Dobrik in Provo, Utah in June 2020. Dobrik had been operating the construction equipment at the time, and footage from the moment was later posted on YouTube in April 2021. (The clip has since been deleted.)
Wittek’s filing claimed Dobrik was spinning the construction equipment at “unsafe speeds” before slowing the machine suddenly, causing Wittek to collide with the side of the excavator and suffer “a myriad of injuries.”
Dobrik’s team did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
TMZwas first to report the news.
Since filming the stunt-gone-wrong with Dobrik in 2020, Wittek has been vocal about the incident.
In February, Wittek shared that he’d undergone his ninth surgery related to the incident, and still had one more to complete. “Finally got one of these damn plates out of my eye!” he wrote in the caption.
The following month, Wittek confirmed he’sno longer on speaking termswith Dobrik after the incident. During a chat on his podcast,Jeff FM, Wittek claimed Dobrik didn’t reach out with well wishes after his near-death experience. (PEOPLE reached out to Dobrik’s team for comment at the time, but never received a response.)
“I’ve been protecting this guy for so long and there’s so much more to the story than just him not texting me for a week after I had such a drastic surgery where I could’ve been blind,” Wittek said of Dobrik.
RELATED VIDEO: Despite Being a YouTube Star, David Dobrik Reveals He’s Very Nervous During Live Performances
Wittek also called Dobrik a “scumbag friend” during the podcast episode and added, “Imagine you smash somebody’s skull in, they take it on the chin, they don’t sue you, they don’t f—ing press charges…I nearly died I came an inch from death and an inch from going blind.”
“I’ll have lifelong brain injuries and saved him from f—ing everything. You would have got deported, you would have got put in jail for manslaughter, you could have got sued for everything, I took it on the chin,” he said.
As for Dobrik, he has also publicly shared his side of the unfortunate stunt. On his own podcast,VIEWS, in March, Dobrik said of the incident, “The Jeff thing is the f—ing worst. That day is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. I would f—ing do anything to take that day back.”
“I wish it was me up there. It’s the most unfortunate thing ever. And it’s a s—ty — it’s an accident. That’s what it was. It’s an accident,” he added.
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Dobrik has also maintained that the stunt was Wittek’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,” Dobrik continued. “He’s pissed that I broke a promise.”
“He’s like, ‘Can you promise me one thing? Can you just promise that no one ever knows that this was my idea?'” Dobrik continued of Wittek.
“He got hurt because I was driving,” Dobrik added. “That’s it, and I f—ing 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.”
source: people.com
