A Texas man lost his life after a swarm of bees attacked him while he was mowing the lawn, causing him to disturb their hive. Despite his efforts to escape by getting into his truck, he tragically crashed into a neighbor’s front yard, according to police reports.
Stephen Daniel was engaged in yardwork near an abandoned building in Friendship Park in Eastland on April 27. During this activity, he unintentionally agitated the aggressive insects and was quickly overwhelmed, as reported by KTXS-TV News.
In a desperate attempt to flee, Daniel jumped into his vehicle. However, the bees pursued him inside and continued their relentless attack until he collided with Chrishae Cooper’s property, the news outlet reported.
“Before I walked up there I just started dialing 911 because I didn’t know, like he was in someone’s yard at first,” Cooper told KTXS. “Then you got closer you could just see like something swarming.
“He was trying to still escape from the bees ’cause he started driving away, and he made it onto the street. But the police finally showed up and turns out he was literally getting attacked by a lot of bees.”
Chilling Ring camera footage from Cooper’s home shows the truck as it rolled onto her lawn.
Eastland cops were dispatched to the scene on reports of a car crash around 4:30 p.m. and arrived to find “the driver of the vehicle was being swarmed by bees,” the department said on Facebook last week.
“Officers immediately evacuated the driver from the area and placed him inside a police vehicle a distance from the initial attack to escape further bee stings,” the release said. “Officers requested an ambulance and the driver while in the ambulance became unresponsive and stopped breathing.
“Life saving measures were administered and the driver was rushed to Eastland Memorial Hospital, where he succumbed to the effects of the bee stings,” police said.
According to KTXS, Daniel died as a result of circulatory collapse.
The freak incident is actually more common than most people realize: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention said an average of 72 Americans died every year as a result hornet, wasp or bee stings.
