Junior Seau's Brother Dead After Head-On Collision With Dump Truck, 10 Years After NFL Star's Suicide
Savaii Seau, the brother of the late former Los Angeles Chargers legend Junior Seau, has passed away following a head-on collision with a dump truck nearly ten years after his brother died from a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.
According to The Sun, 56-year-old Savaii was driving in his 2005 Audi A6 with a 42-year-old female passenger Tuesday afternoon when his vehicle collided head-on with a dump truck. Savaii was rushed to a nearby hospital, but was pronounced dead shortly after.
The female passenger reportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and the 60-year-old driver of the dump truck also reportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The California Highway Patrol said that it appeared Savaii was not wearing his seatbelt at the time of the fatal crash, whereas his passenger and the other driver were. The CHP also does not yet know whether or not drugs or alcohol played a role in Tuesday’s crash.
Savaii’s tragic death comes almost ten years after his brother Junior’s death on May 2, 2012, after he was found unconscious by his girlfriend with a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest in Oceanside, California.
After the former Chargers star’s girlfriend reported the incident to the police, they declared Junior dead at the scene.
Following his death, medical experts reportedly found evidence that the former NFL football player suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy – or CTE – a brain disease many athletes of close-contact sports like football suffer from.
Three years after his death, Junior was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015. Before his death, and when he was still actively playing as a linebacker for the Chargers, Junior was a 10-time All-Pro and 12-time Pro Bowl selection.
The Seau family, including the late Savaii, created The Mary Seau CTE Foundation following Junior’s tragic passing in hopes to bring not only awareness but also funding to the brain disease that has reportedly pushed other famous football players – such as Terry Luther, Andre Waters, and Shane Dronett – to take their own lives.
One of the last pictures of Savaii was reportedly taken in August at a fundraiser for the foundation.
