You could endlessly argue over how real reality TV shows actually are.
But no matter what the answer to that conundrum is, it's true that the stars of these shows
can experience traumatic real-life events.
From tragic deaths to horrific injuries, here are some reality TV stars who have been involved
in horrible accidents.
In August 2019, Shark Tank panelist and entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary was involved in a boating accident
that killed two people and injured four others.
O'Leary was a passenger on the boat, which was driven by his wife, Linda.
They collided with another boat on Lake Joseph in Ontario, Canada.
A 64-year-old man died in the crash, while a 48-year-old woman named Susanne Brito passed
away a few days later in the hospital while being treated for her injuries.
On September 2, O'Leary hired Defense Attorney Brian Greenspan, as he was seeking counsel
after his statements differed from police officers' accounts.
O'Leary alleged that the other boat involved in the accident left the scene after the crash,
and also didn't have its lights on.
The West Parry Sound Ontario Provincial Police stated that after the collision, both boats
had left the scene.
A source also told TMZ that the navigation lights on the other boat were on at the time
of the crash, directly challenging O'Leary's initial statement that the other boat didn't
have any navigation lights on.
On August 27, 2019, former MythBusters star Jessi Combs was involved in a fatal crash
in the Alvord Desert in Oregon at the age of 39.
Combs, who was also a race car driver, was attempting to break her land speed record
in a jet-powered car.
She had earned the title of "fastest woman on four wheels" in 2013 when she set a record
speed of 398 miles per hour at the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger.
She then set a new record in October 2019 during a shakedown run clocking 483.2 miles
per hour.
She was attempting to break that top speed when she ended up crashing.
Her former MythBusters colleague Adam Savage shared his sadness over Twitter after the
news broke, saying,
"She was a brilliant and to[p]-notch builder, engineer, driver, fabricator, and science
communicator, & strove everyday to encourage others by her prodigious example.
She was also a colleague, and we are lesser for her absence."
"The Jessi that I knew wanted to inspire young people like her to try things that they were
maybe afraid to try or that they didn't think was possible."
In April 2017, The Bachelor star Chris Soules fatally injured an Iowa farmer after striking
the man with his pickup truck.
Soules was arrested and charged with a Class D felony for leaving the scene of a deadly
crash.
The 66-year-old victim, Kenneth E. Mosher, was driving his tractor when he was hit from
behind by Soules' pickup truck, and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Soules was taken into custody at his home a few hours after he reportedly left the scene
of the accident.
When his case made it to court, Soules' attorneys attempted to have it thrown out by arguing
that the laws he was accused of violating were "unconstitutionally vague" and violated
his constitutional rights.
The judge dismissed that argument, though, and on November 13, 2018, Soules entered a
conditional guilty plea for "leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious injury."
In August 2019, it was reported that Soules received a suspended sentence of two years
as well as a $625 fine, avoiding jail time for the aggravated misdemeanor.
In November 2017, Little Women: Atlanta star Melissa Hancock was involved in a fatal car
crash in Virginia.
State police arrested her for driving under the influence, maiming, and driving the wrong
way.
The victim, U.S. Coast Guard technician Daniel Dill, suffered a major spinal cord injury
as well as internal injuries and broken bones before passing away in the hospital.
The accident involved a head-on collision between Hancock's 2011 Cadillac and Dill's
2009 Mazda.
One hour after the crash, Hancock's blood-alcohol level tested at 0.194 percent, well above
the legal limit of 0.08.
Dill's widow Natalie spoke to reporters during Hancock's trial.
"We'll never grow old together.
Never have children, you know.
He would've been a great father."
On May 23, 2018, Hancock pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter while driving under
the influence, driving the wrong way, and failing to obey a highway sign.
She was then sentenced to 16 years in prison for aggravated involuntary manslaughter and
DUI, and fined $3,000.
Hancock shared a remorseful message to the Dill family, saying,
"Words cannot express my sympathy.
I can't believe what I have done.
I could never mean to hurt anyone."
In January 2017, Chrisley Knows Best star Savannah Chrisley was hospitalized following
a car accident.
Her father, Todd Chrisley, told E! News that his daughter had sustained a fractured vertebrae
in her neck as well as several bruises and burns from the airbags.
The reality TV star was driving during a rainstorm when her driver's side floor mat became stuck
under the gas pedal after she attempted to fix the mat.
While doing so, she took her eyes off of the road, and when she looked up, her vehicle
veered toward a guardrail and crashed into it.
"I love you with my heart and soul, and I'm not gonna bury you, because God did not send
me equipped to do that."
Todd also noted that his daughter would face a recovery period of six weeks for her injuries.
A few days after the accident, he spoke with People Magazine about strangers on the internet
that were accusing Savannah of texting and driving, noting that she sent her last text
message 44 minutes before the wreck happened.
A few months later, Savannah made her first post-accident red carpet appearance, at the
ACM Awards on April 2, 2017, having apparently recovered from her injuries.
Theo Campbell, star of The Challenge and Love Island, was blinded in one eye following a
freak accident.
He shared on his Instagram that after two eye surgeries, he had lost all of his vision
in his right eye after it was split in half.
He explained that a champagne cork was the culprit, though he stayed positive in his
post, noting that he still had one eye left and that he was on the lookout for cool eye
patches.
Campbell also tweeted about the incident on August 28, 2019, sharing that he had seven
stitches in his eye and that the doctors had told him it was unlikely that he would ever
be able to see properly again.
But he had his fingers crossed, noting,
"I'm hopeful and don't want to believe my eye is gone forever.
Anything is possible."
By September 5 of that year, Campbell, while donning a new eye patch over his right eye,
announced via Instagram that he would be running a 10K race to raise money for the Himalayan
Cataract Project.
The following day, he shared with Metro's This Morning that he is able to see light,
though his vision in his right eye is like a stained-glass window.
"Life isn't over with one eye."
On June 20, 2011, Jackass star Ryan Dunn died in a horrific car accident in West Chester,
Pennsylvania.
His passenger, Zachary Hartwell, also lost his life when the vehicle Dunn was driving
flew over a guardrail and burst into flames after striking a tree.
According to the Chester County Coroner's report, Dunn and Hartwell's cause of death
was listed as "blunt and thermal trauma due to a motor vehicle accident."
Fellow Jackass star Bam Margera was Dunn's best friend, and their relationship extended
to the rest of the Margera family.
Margera's parents, April and Phil, spoke to NBC about Dunn after the accident, saying
they thought of him as a son.
"Just the sweetest guy you'd ever want to know, and he just would do anything for ya.
He drove too fast, and I yelled at him all the time about that."
The West Goshen Police Department later revealed that Dunn had a blood-alcohol level of 0.196
at the time of his death, which is more than twice the legal limit in Pennsylvania.
They also noted that he'd been driving between 132 and 140 miles per hour when the crash
occurred.
Eric Hill
On April 23, 2014, Bachelorette contestant Eric Hill suffered critical injuries in Utah
after a tragic paragliding accident and then passed away after he fell into a coma at the
hospital.
The 31-year-old was paragliding near Point of the Mountain in Draper when his chute deployed
and then collapsed.
Hill's brother told The Salt Lake Tribune that there was an issue with the parachute
that brought him too close to the mountain and slammed him into it.
The year before, KSL.com had reported that Hill set up a project called The Global Odyssey,
in which he intended to visit all 194 UN-recognized countries in record time.
He made it to 46 by the time of his death.
His mission statement for The Global Odyssey read:
"In a world full of news that wants to scare you outside of anything outside of your own
border, I want to be the one telling everybody that even in the craziest places, awesome
exists."
On December 9, 2012, musician and reality TV star Jenni Rivera died in a plane accident
along with six other passengers.
The crash happened in a mountainous area in northern Mexico and left no survivors.
The other passengers included Rivera's publicist, her lawyer, and her makeup artists.
"How do you tell five kids that their mom is gone?
How do you tell your mother that her daughter's gone?"
In July 2016, it was reported that Starwood Management LLC, the company that owned the
plane, was ordered by a Los Angeles judge to pay a $70 million settlement to the families
of four of the deceased passengers.
This came after the families filed a wrongful death suit against Starwood Management and
Rivera's entertainment company after a long investigation by Mexico's aviation agency.
The investigation determined that the 78-year-old pilot of the Learjet was too old for the license
he obtained, and that the plane had been flying unevenly and was shaking while in cruising
speed.
On January 17, 2015, Greg Plitt, star of the Bravo reality TV show Work Out, died in Burbank,
California, after being struck by a train as he reportedly attempted to race the train
while filming for a project.
Police officer Joshua Kendrick told the Associated Press that the conductor could see somebody
on the tracks a distance away and then the conductor pulled the brakes and blew the horn,
but for whatever reason, Plitt didn't get off the tracks.
A few of Plitt's friends reported that the fitness model and actor was filming an action
sequence at the time of his death, while there were other reports that the footage was meant
for an energy drink commercial.
Officers reviewed a video of the accident, and revealed to TMZ that right before the
train reached Plitt, he took off before being quickly clipped by the train.
Someone involved in the shoot told investigators that for the supposed energy drink commercial,
Plitt was trying to show that the drink would make consumers able to outrun speeding trains.
An official from Metrolink told CBS Los Angeles that Plitt and his crew didn't have the proper
permits to be filming next to the tracks.
"We cannot secure every inch of our track.
We need people to understand, when they see tracks, they have to think a train is imminent."
In April 2013, Buckwild star Shain Gandee, his uncle David Dwight Gandee, and another
passenger named Donald Robert Myers were found dead in Gandee's SUV.
The three men had succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning.
The freak accident occurred after the vehicle's tailpipe was submerged in mud while the three
men were off-roading, which is what officials believed caused the carbon monoxide poisoning.
The bodies were discovered by a friend of Gandee's who'd been searching for the men
after the reality star disappeared over the weekend.
Gandee's Ford Bronco was found "uneven but upright," and partially submerged in the mud,
including the muffler.
This left the driver's side clear, but it partially covered the lower part of the passenger
door.
MTV released a statement in response to the tragic accident, saying,
"Shain had a magnetic personality, with a passion for life that touched everyone he
met and we will miss him dearly."
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