In a new video series, Don’t Try This At Home, Vlog Squad member Jeff Wittek has finally revealed how he hurt his eye swinging from an excavator with David Dobrik at the helm.
Since sharing that he had been in an accident in July 2020, fans were speculating he had been injured filming a vlog, but the YouTuber kept quiet on the details until recently.
In the second episode of the series, Jeff explains how COVID-19 had stopped the Vlog Squad from filming together, and David wanted to film a comeback video featuring stunts like skydiving and wakeboarding.
It’s clear that some members were apprehensive about filming dangerous stunt videos, but still wanted to deliver exciting content to viewers.
“I’ve never loved the idea of stunts, there’s always a risk. But you guys love the action,” said Jason Nash, another Vlog Squad member.
Jeff explains that the Vlog Squad met in Utah to film a stunt video at a lake. For this stunt, a rope was attached to an excavator in the middle of the lake, and David controlled the excavator from the inside to spin people around over the water.
This is where things start to go wrong.
Streamer Corinna Kopf is first to be spun around on the rope, but the rope is unstable and she can be heard telling David that he “takes things too far”. When Jeff gets on the rope, he is spun around by David at a dangerous speed, which is later revealed to be 60mph.
The screen goes black and in the narration, Jeff reveals he collided with the excavator. “I tore some ligaments in my leg, I broke my foot, I broke my hip, I shattered my skull in 9 places, I shattered my eye socket, I almost lost my eye, and I almost died,” he says.
While the latest installment is featured on Jeff’s Patreon behind a paywall, clips of the vlog circulating the internet show Jeff speaking about feeling abandoned by David, claiming David didn’t check in on him for a month after the accident.
“It made me resent him, it made me resent seeing his face, it made me not wanna open up YouTube, it would just put me in a bad place,” said Jeff.
Fans have criticised David for putting his friends in danger for views, calling him irresponsible and selfish while staying out of the dangerous stunts himself, and failing to be there for Jeff when he was hurt.
To watch Jeff’s vlog, find his Patreon here.