Top Gear presenter Chris Harris has claimed he gave a morbid warning to the BBC three months before Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash.
While filming for Top Gear in December 2022, the TV presenter and retired cricketer was involved in a brutal car accident at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, leaving him with facial injuries, broken ribs, and ongoing psychological effects.
It wasn’t until September 2023 until Flintoff, 46, was spotted out in public for the first time at a cricket game with visible scars and facial injuries.
The following month, he reached a financial settlement with the BBC, which according to reports was worth £9 million. The payout did not use BBC Licence Fee income to operate.
Only last month, in the first episode of the second series of Flintoff’s documentary Field of Dreams on Tour, Flintoff shared details of the incident for the first time.
And now, his Top Gear co-host Harris, 49, has broken his silence following the horror crash.
In an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the car enthusiast claims he warned the BBC of health and safety prior to the accident.
Freddie Flintoff’s crash left him with broken ribs and facial scarring (BBC)
“Three months before the accident, l’d gone to the BBC and said ‘unless you change something, someone’s going to die on this show’,” Harris said.
“So I went to them. I went to the BBC and I told them of my concerns from what l’d seen. As the most experienced driver on the show, by a mile, I said ‘if we carry on, at the very least, we’re going to have a serious injury. At the very worst, we’re going to have a fatality’.”
On Flintoff allegedly not even wearing a crash helmet during on the day of the incident, Harris added: “He wasn’t wearing a crash helmet. And if you do that, even at 25, 30 miles an hour, the injuries that you sustain are profound.
“I was there on the day, I was the only presenter with Fred that day. I remember the radio message that I heard. I heard someone say this has been a real accident here. The car’s upside down.
“So I ran to the window, looked out and he wasn’t moving. So I thought he was dead. I assumed he was, then he moved.”
He continued: “So that day was very difficult, made even more difficult by the fact that the build-up to that particular shoot, I knew that we were – at the last minute – that we were using a Morgan three-wheeler.
“The name tells you its physics is complicated. It doesn’t mean it’s inherently dangerous. You have to be aware of its limitations. And I think that really was difficult. And you need experience.”
LADbible has contacted the BBC for comment.
