Jeff Wittek has filed a lawsuit against YouTube star David Dobrik, claiming he suffered critical injuries from a stunt they filmed together in 2020
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 13: Jeff Wittek arrives at the 9th Annual Streamy Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on December 13, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Morgan Lieberman/FilmMagic)
David Dobrik is being sued for damages related to ex-Vlog Squad member Jeff Wittek’s near-fatal injuries.
Wittek is asking for $10 million in damages from Dobrik, 25, for “general negligence and intentional tort,” alleging that Dobrik’s actions caused him to miss out on work and sustain hospital bills due to the intense injuries, according to a lawsuit obtained by PEOPLE.
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.
TMZ was first to report the news.
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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’s no longer on speaking terms with 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.
“I woke up from surgery. A day goes by, no text for him. Another day goes by, no text. I look at his Instagram because it’s the first one that always f—ing pops up because the algorithm or whatever. It’s just him like, ‘Oh, I’m so happy with my life right now. My vlogs and everything,’ just promoting his vlog,” he continued. “I was just like, you got time to do this but you can’t text me and be like, ‘Hey, did you go blind or not from my actions?’ I just want to f—ing tell the truth, finally. I gave this motherf— so many chances. Even now, a week later, I still haven’t heard a peep.”
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.
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.”
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