Getty ImagesFormer Top Gear presenter Chris Harris has claimed he expressed safety concerns to the BBC before Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff’s crash in 2022.
The show is currently on hiatus after the former cricketer was seriously injured while filming at Top Gear’s test track at Dunsfold.
Speaking to podcaster Joe Rogan, Harris said he had warned the BBC three months before the accident that there could be a “serious injury” or “fatality” if safety procedures were not tightened.
BBC Studios, which makes Top Gear, referred to an independent investigation in 2023 which found they had complied with industry best practice, but that there were “learnings which would need to be rigorously applied” if Top Gear returned.
In his interview, Harris told Rogan: “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’.
“So I went to them, I went to the BBC and 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 fatality’.”
Harris added his two co-presenters, Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness – were “brilliant entertainers” but “didn’t have the experience I had in cars” and were not “qualified to make decisions”.
Discussing 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.”
Flintoff ‘wasn’t moving’
Harris said he crash happened as Flintoff was driving a three-wheeled supercar.
“It’s a very, difficult car,” he said. “You have to be aware of its limitations. And I think that really was difficult, and you need experience.
“There were two people that had driven a Morgan three-wheeler before present that day – me and someone else, a pro driver.
“And we were sitting inside at that time. No one had asked us anything about the car. They’d just gone on and shot it without us.”
Harris arrived on the scene shortly after the crash. He recalled: “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.”
He continued: “[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.
“He’s a great advert for physical strength and conditioning, because if he hadn’t been that strong, he’d have just snapped his neck, he’d be dead.”
In a statement released 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 spokesman 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 recently returned to screens with his BBC series Field of Dreams, in which he revealed he suffers anxiety, nightmares and flashbacks following his accident.
Harris is due to present a new road trip series with fellow Top Gear presenter Paddy McGuinness, which is currently in production.