Family and friends are mourning the loss of Sarah Danser.
The Naked and Afraid star passed away Oct. 22 after being hospitalized following in a car accident in Kahala, Hawaii, according to local TV station KSLA.
The crash occurred two days earlier Oct. 20, when a male driver lost control of a car that Danser was a passenger in and struck a parked vehicle, according to Honolulu police. Local authorities indicated that speed was likely a factor, but drugs and alcohol were not.
The driver was hospitalized in serious condition, as was a woman in the parked car, KSLA reports. According to the outlet, another man Another man in the parked car refused treatment.
The 34-year-old veteran reality TV star first appeared on the Discovery Channel survivalist series' eighth season in 2017. She returned to the show for season 11 in 2020, in addition to appearing on Naked and Afraid XL for the installment’s fourth, sixth and seventh seasons.
She had most recently appeared on The CW's Fight to Survive in 2023.
Danser's father Dan Danser and brother Jake Danser shared they arrived at the hospital hours before she passed.
"I actually saw how much of a difference she made in the lives of others," her father told KSLA. "I think she saved my life once, diving in Indonesia."
Her brother added, "Magical is the way to describe her. Sarah had this positive energy about her that just really filled the environment that she was in."
Danser was a Colorado native, and her family noted that she had been living in Hawaii for over a decade. The two-time breast cancer survivor worked as a boat captain and lived part-time on a boat in the local Kahala boat basin.
"Heavy hearts as we say goodbye to a good friend and great captain," her employer Island Divers Hawaii wrote in a Facebook tribute. "Sarah brought such great energy to everyone she came in contact with. You will be greatly missed."
Tim Mason, a friend of Danser's and a fellow diver, said that the local diving community was inspired by her and would host large watch parties for her reality TV appearances.
“She was smart. She went under the water. She found food, slugs and snails and stuff like that,” Mason told KSLA. “She knew what to do to survive and she did great.”
Fellow Naked and Afraid star Melissa Lauren also honored her late costar.
"Sarah was of the most adventurous souls I’ve ever met," she wrote on Facebook. "She wasn’t only a fierce survivalist on Naked and Afraid (she completed XL in South Africa with me), but a Breast Cancer survivor who kept an inspiring and positive attitude through her treatment."
She added, "She loved the ocean, nature and exploring – I always considered her a ‘modern day pirate.'"