The former Top Gear presenter Chris Harris has said he expressed safety concerns to the BBC three months before the car crash that left Andrew Flintoff with facial injuries and broken ribs.
The former England cricketer, 46, was driving an open-topped three-wheel vehicle when it flipped and slid along the track at Dunsfold aerodrome, Surrey, in December 2022.
The BBC announced last year it had “rested” Top Gear, which had been running since 2002, for the foreseeable future after Flintoff’s accident and paid £9m in compensation to him.
Speaking to the US podcaster Joe Rogan, Harris claimed he warned the BBC that there could be a “serious injury” or “fatality” if safety procedures were not changed.
The 49-year-old said: “What was never spoken about was that three months before the accident, I’d gone to the BBC and said: ‘Unless you change something, someone’s going to die on this show.’
“I told them of my concerns from what I’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.’”
BBC Studios, which made Top Gear, has referred to an independent investigation in 2023 that found it had complied with industry best practice but that there were “learnings which would need to be rigorously applied” if the programme returned.
Harris said his two co-presenters, Flintoff – known as Freddie – and Paddy McGuinness, were “brilliant entertainers” but “didn’t have the experience I had in cars” and were not “qualified to make decisions”.
Speaking about Flintoff’s accident, Harris said: “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.”
He added: “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.
“[Flintoff] wasn’t moving, so I thought he was dead. I assumed he was, then he moved. He’s a physical specimen, Fred. He’s a big guy … six-foot five, six-foot six … strong. And if he wasn’t so strong, he wouldn’t have survived.”
In a statement last year, BBC Studios referred to an independent health and safety production review of Top Gear, which looked at previous seasons of the show.
“[The review] found that while BBC Studios had complied with the required BBC policies and industry best practice in making the show, there were important learnings which would need to be rigorously applied to future Top Gear UK productions,” a spokesperson said.
“The report included a number of recommendations to improve approaches to safety as Top Gear is a complex programme-making environment routinely navigating tight filming schedules and ambitious editorial expectations – challenges often experienced by long-running shows with an established on- and off-screen team.
“Learnings included a detailed action plan involving changes in the ways of working, such as increased clarity on roles and responsibilities and better communication between teams for any future Top Gear production.”
Flintoff has since returned to the public eye, rejoining the backroom staff of the England men’s cricket team for their T20 series against the West Indies, and as head coach of the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred tournament. He also filmed the BBC documentary Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams on Tour.