The family of YouTuber Andrew Cross, who was known online as Desert Drifter, have shared details of his final moments before he was taken off life support following a serious car accident.
Andrew, 36, had amassed more than 470,000 subscribers on YouTube by sharing videos of his adventures, which he offered up ‘with a historical twist’.
On February 1, Andrew was involved in a car accident while he made his way home from filming at Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, and was left with a serious brain injury and in need of life support.
In recent weeks a fundraiser has been raising money to help cover Andrew’s medical expenses, but in an update shared on CaringBridge on March 4 his sister Jenna announced that the YouTuber had been taken on life support one day earlier and had passed away that morning.
Andrew had been filming in Utah before his car accident (YouTube/Desert Drifter)
Jenna announced that Andrew’s spirit was ‘free, surrounded by light & love’.
She continued: “He went to be with the Lord today, March 4 at 10:50 AM MST. It was peaceful and full of love in the room with Evelyn by his side, his parents and close friends nearby.
“It’s a big loss for all of us, and we’re immensely grateful for your steadfast support and prayers. Throughout all of this, it’s been our heart to stay full of faith, so we wouldn’t look back and wonder “what if…” Thank you for walking in that with us.”
Jenna went on to share details of Andrew’s final moments, revealing that before he was taken off life support he was moved to a mobile ventilator which allowed his carers to walk with him ‘around the whole ICU’.
The sister explained that all the available staff ‘lined the hallway as a way to honor him’.
Andrew was supported by carers before being taken off life support (YouTube/Desert Drifter)
She continued: “Then in the room, friends & family read scripture, prayed, and sang during the process of removing life support and for over an hour afterwards. It was peaceful and beautiful.”
Jenna credited Andrew with living life ‘to the fullest’, adding: “His story & impact isn’t over yet. It’s been wonderful to get to know him in new ways as we’ve seen photos and stories shared by so many. We look forward to more of that as we honor a life well lived.”
Andrew’s wife, Evelyn Cross, previously told Andrew’s supporters that their kindness meant ‘the world’.
“We’re so grateful to all of you for watching his videos. It’s mind-blowing to us that you want to show up and watch them,” she said.
Internet personality IShowSpeed has confirmed that he has been banned from YouTube.
Addressing his YouTube ban in a statement, he wrote: “Hey guys, if y’all are watching this right now, I’m banned on YouTube on my main channel.
YouTuber IShowSpeed shared a video of him jumping over a car (X/@ishowspeedsui)
“I cannot stream or do anything, guys. I just wanted to let y’all know. I love y’all.”
The streamer has some 27 million subscribers on the platform, and frequently posts videos of himself travelling around the world.
The ban was after his account allegedly violated YouTube’s community guidelines.
It has come following a livestream in which the streamer is shown performing a dangerous stunt involving a sports car.
This consisted of him standing in a road as a car drives towards him and jumping at the right moment so that the car passes underneath him and he effectively jumps over it.
The highly dangerous stunt left people divided online, with some left concerned it might lead to people injuring themselves while trying to emulate it.
Speaking in the video after performing the stunt, Speed said: “I risked my life for y’all”, before a ‘WARNING’ sign appears on the screen.
It said: “The stunts in this video were performed by professionals, so for the safety of yourself and the protection of those around you, please do not attempt any of the stunts you are about to see.”
Recently the streamer was left terrified after a crowd of fans surrounded him on a trip to Norway.
Footage showed him struggling to reach a waiting car amid a massive throng of people surrounding him.
Speaking after successfully getting in the car, he said: “My ankle’s broken, they pulled my hair out. They threw water at me.
Speed was injured in the crush. (Youtube/IShowSpeed)
“Somebody literally did a WWE Rey Mysterio move and jumped off the car.”
The streamer added: “This was the scariest day of my life. I promise you. I couldn’t even breathe.”
Video footage from a livestream of the incident offered a glimpse of Speed’s view of the ordeal and showed just how closely packed the crowd became.
At a later point in the video the streamer can be seen having his injured foot checked out by somebody.
IShowSpeed also posted to his second account, revealing details of how bad things got during the ordeal.
He claimed: “They f**king pulled my hair out and threw p*ss on me and some random f**king dude jumped in my car and started tweaking hell f**king no i’m f**king p*ssed.”
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A man was live-streaming shortly before the plane he was on crashed and killed him.
Sonu Jaiswal was one of the 72 passengers on Yeti Airlines Fight 691 who died after the plane crashed during landing.
The flight took off on January 15, 2023, from Kathmandu and was traveling to Pokhara in Nepal.
But tragedy struck just as the domestic passenger plane was about to land after the aircraft stalled.
All passengers on Flight 691 died. (Skanda Gautam/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Three infants and three children were among the deceased.
Over a year on from the fateful day, an inquest found that the crash happened as a result of a pilot accidentally pulling the wrong levers.
HM Coroner’s Court for North London heard as part of an inquest into British born passenger Ruan Crighton’s death, that one of the pilots had mistakenly changed the propeller angle instead of the wing flaps, BBC News reported.
Crighton was ruled to have died by blunt force injuries to his head, chest, and abdomen as a result of the plane crash.
Alongside Crighton, another person to have lost their life that day was 25-year-old Jaiswal, who was live streaming on Facebook shortly before the crash occurred.
The video taken by Sonu Jaiswal filmed the devastating aftermath of the fatal crash. (Sonu Jaiswal)
The 90 second-long clip was taken as the aircraft was approaching the runway by flying over buildings and green fields over Pokhara in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Jaiswal filmed the picturesque scenes he could see from his seat, when around 50 seconds in the plane began to plummet.
People’s panicked, raised voices were heard in the background of the clip before a loud crashing sound.
While Jaiswal could no longer be seen in the shot, his phone continued to record the plane on fire.
Warning: This video contains content which some viewers may find distressing.
The young man’s family didn’t believe that he’d died in the ordeal until the saw the harrowing video for themselves.
His brother Deepak told The Associated Press at the time: “We couldn’t believe the news until we saw the video. It was painful.”
“He was not just my brother,” Deepak added, as per Al Jazeera. “I have lost a friend in him.”
Other devastating footage taken on the day of the crash was taken by a bystander on the ground.
In the short clip, the aircraft is seen quickly plummeting to the ground before almost tilting 180.
It’s believed the pilots were trying to direct the plane into a nearby river to prevent crashing into a village.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact The Compassionate Friends on (877) 969-0010.
A stunt performed to raise awareness about homeless went horribly wrong after a man ended up losing his life.
In 1995, Robert Overacker had hoped to perform a stunt over Niagara Falls that consisting of him riding a jet ski over the edge of the Falls and launching a parachute afterwards.
His jet ski bore a sign reading ‘Save the Homeless’, and his brother and a friend were on-hand to film the daredevil feat.
But the ordeal went horribly wrong, meaning thousands of onlookers saw thrill-seeker Robert plummet to his death.
Arguably making things worse, the harrowing ordeal was also caught on camera.
Canadian side of the Niagara River in Ontario. (Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
As many as 3,000 tourists were present at the Falls when the stunt happened.
Robert, 39, had been riding his own personal jet ski at time. It remains unclear why his rocket-propelled parachute failed to deploy that fateful day.
Robert’s body was later recovered 180 feet below Canadian Horseshoe Falls.
He was pronounced dead at Greater Niagara General Hospital an hour after the stunt went wrong.
Speaking after his death, Tom Detenbeck, a parks police dispatcher, compared hitting the water from that height as ‘like hitting cement’.
“You’re talking a million gallons of water going over the falls in a second,” he went on to say of the force of the Falls.
Robert Overacker died after his parachute failed to deploy (YouTube/Schmitt)
The stunt school graduate was said to have been planning the stunt for seven years, Los Angeles Times reported.
He’d tried to do it on two previous occasions, but his friends managed to talk him out of it.
Robert was survived by his wife Laurie Overacker. The couple didn’t have any children at the time of his passing.
A video of the harrowing incident was uploaded to YouTube in 2014 where one witness came forward and shared their own memories of the sad day.
“I watched this from the balcony of the Fallsview Sheraton,” they wrote in 2020. “It was the morning after a wedding spent at the hotel…the few of us were shaking off cobwebs from the night before and watched this incredulously as it happened.”
Robert Overacker’s parachute didn’t deloy. (@clayschmitt/YouTube)
The onlooker continued: “I turned to my friends after watching this and muttered something about never drinking again because I just watched a guy go over the Falls on a jet ski.”
Sadly Robert isn’t the only person to have died going over Niagara Falls, but in a bid to deter people from performing stunts like his, Canadian and American authorities have long enforced hefty fines for going over the water’s edge.
According to Niagara Action, you could be fined as much as $10,000 from the Canadian Government and up to $25,000 by the US Government.
A young woman unknowingly filmed her final moments while enjoying a night out with her friends.
Arina Glazunova was enjoying an evening out in Tbilisi, Georgia, last Friday (September 27) when tragedy struck.
Arina, who hailed from Moscow, Russia, was being filmed by a pal miming the lyrics of a song.
The 24-year-old then took the phone off her friend and proceeded to film her singing Russian boyband Hunger Boys’ hit tune, ‘For The Last Time’.
The clip shows her singing out the line: “No, I’m not waiting for you, but know that I loved for the last time, for the last time.”
But what was a fun video of two friends enjoying themselves turned out to be a recording of Arina’s final moments as, while she was filming her companion, she fell down an entrance to an underpass.
According to reports, the young woman was rushed to hospital afterwards but sadly died as a result of her head injuries and a broken neck.
Photographs and videos of the scene where Arina sadly died have been circulating online.
The entrance to the stairway leading down to the underpass is shown to have no railings around it. In lieu of railings is a small ledge.
With it’s lack of safety measures in mind, people have been criticizing its design.
One person penned on TikTok: “I mean in the night it’s dark you can not see the barrier. They really need to make it higher so something like this would not happen again.”
People online have criticized the underpass’ lack of safety measures (Newsflash)
Another person pointed out that the ledge around the drop leading to the underpass is below knee-height.
A different social media user questioned: “Why is there no protection or fence?”
Echoing similar sentiments, another person wrote: “I was shocked seeing the subway entrance… that is so dangerous.”
In the wake of Arina’s death, people have laid flowers where she died.
Elsewhere tributes have been paid online to the young woman who passed away too soon.
“I’m so sorry for the young woman… she should never have died,” someone said.
“Rest in peace Arina,’ said another, while a third person penned: “I feel so sorry for her, her friend, the p
