Man dies in bee attack despite frantic escape attempt that had him drive through neighbor's yard

New York Post

18-05-2025

A Texas man was killed by a swarm of bees after disturbing a hive while mowing the lawn — despite a desperate escape attempt that saw him jump in his truck and crash into a neighbor's front yard, police said.
Stephen Daniel was doing yardwork near an abandoned building in Friendship Park in Eastland on April 27 when he apparently roused the vicious pests and was quickly overcome, KTXS-TV News reported.
Daniel frantically jumped into his vehicle to get away, but the bees followed him inside and continued to sting him until he crashed into Chrishae Cooper's property, the outlet said.
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3 Ring camera from Chrishae Cooper's home captured Stephen Daniel driving into her yard while being killed by bees.
KTXS News
'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.'
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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.
3 Stephen Daniel was mowing a lawn in Eastland, Texas, on April 27 when he was killed by a swarm of bees.
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'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.
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'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.
3 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says an average of 72 Americans die every year from bee, wasp and hornet stings.
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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.