CBS News Correspondent Bob Simon Killed In Car Crash

Long-time CBS News Correspondent Bob Simon died Wednesday night in a New York City car crash.  His career spanned five decades beginning in Vietnam in the late 1960's and he was aboard one of the last helicopters out of Saigon in 1975.

Simon took on some of the most dangerous assignments all over the world.  He reported on the violence in Northern Ireland and from war zones in Portugal, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, Yugoslavia and the Persian Gulf.

During the opening days of the  Gulf War in 1991, Simon and his CBS News team were captured by Iraqi forces and spent 40 days in Iraqi prisons.  He wrote about his experience in the book "Forty Days".

Most recently Simon was working as a correspondent on 60 Minutes with his most recent report just this past Sunday - a conversation with director Ava DuVernay of the Academy Award nominated movie "Selma".

Simon was riding in a Lincoln Town Car when the driver may have suffered a heart attack.  The Lincoln then collided with another car.  Rescuers had to cut off the roof of the Town Car to free Simon and the driver. Simon was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.  He was 73.