“60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon was responsible for his own death, the limousine company being sued for the crash that killed him insists in galling new court papers.
Simon, 73, understood “all risks and dangers” and “assumed the risk” when he climbed into the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car last February, Skyline Credit Ride says in the Manhattan Supreme Court filing.
Once inside, the legendary newsman “failed to use or misused available seat belts, and thereby contributed to the alleged injuries,” the company claims — an allegation Simon’s side flatly disputes.
His behavior constituted “culpable conduct of the plaintiff,” according to the court papers, which claim — without elaborating — that Simon’s injuries were made worse by his “failure to mitigate such injury.”
Yet the filing ignores the issue of the black-car driver’s ability — or lack thereof. The driver, Abdul Reshad Fedahi, 44, had nine license suspensions and two speeding convictions on his record — and was driving with one hand because his right arm had been rendered useless due to a suicide attempt.
Eyewitnesses have told The Post that Simon’s Lincoln was veering erratically as it traveled southbound on the West Side Highway near West 30th Street, just before the 7 p.m. crash on Feb. 11.
The Lincoln grazed a Mercedes, then accelerated before slamming into barriers along the median, one witness said at the time.
Two days before the crash, Skyline had been warned that several customers had complained about Fedahi’s erratic driving, The Post reported — a revelation later backed by the Simon estate’s own investigation.
“It’s absolutely outrageous that they would blame an innocent passenger in the back of the car — that somehow, he was culpable in causing the accident,” said Howard Hershenhorn, the lawyer for Simon’s widow, Francoise, who is suing the limo company and the driver for unspecified damages. “It’s preposterous,” he added.
A lawyer for Skyline did not return phone calls or e-mails requesting comment.