Top Gear star Chris Harris breaks silence on Freddie Flintoff crash in furious attack on BBC

Top Gear star Chris Harris accuses the BBC of safety failings on its flagship show - and claims he warned bosses that someone could die if things were not improved

Former Top Gear star Chris Harris has spoken about colleague Freddie Flintoff's crash for the first time - claiming he warned BBC bosses before the accident that "someone was going to die" because of safety failings on the show.

In an astonishing new interview, Chris says how he thought Freddie had died in the aftermath of the incident in December 2022. And he blasts the BBC for allegedly failing to take his concerns seriously ahead of the accident - and lists other "dangerous" examples where safety was compromised.

In a bombshell new chat with Joe Rogan, Chris says how Freddie, who wasn't wearing a helmet, wasn't briefed properly on the day ahead of driving the Morgan three-wheeler car. The shoot was "rushed" and both him and another person who had knowledge of the car didn't have time to consult Freddie accordingly.

Remembering the day in question, he says: "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 wasn't actually right by him, but I was close by. I remember the radio message that I heard. I always used to have a radio in my little room at the test track where I was sitting inside so I could hear what was going on.

"And 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.

Image: BBC/Lee Brimble) BBC/Lee Brimble)

"He’s 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."

He says that Freddie wasn't properly briefed ahead of the shoot.

"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. It's a very, difficult car, you know. The name tells you its physics is complicated. It doesn't mean it's inherently dangerous. You just drive it according to what it is. 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. And I think if I'm looking in the mirror, I find it very difficult, even now, that Andrew, who I loved to bits, a lovely man, he was a pro cricket player. He wasn't an automotive guy.

"And because of the call times that day, that was the first time we'd never had the chance to talk about how he might approach a difficult vehicle. And that was the one day that it went wrong. I find that very difficult to live with. And I feel partly responsible because I didn't get the chance to talk to him."

He says that the aftermath of the accident was "really difficult" not least because of Freddie's injuries. But he says it was made worse by the fact he claims he warned the BBC .

He says: "But 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 gonna have a serious injury at the very worst we're gonna have fatality. And I think what happened with Top Gear was I saw repeatedly too many times my two co-hosts who didn't have the experience I had in cars. This is the critical thing. I'm qualified to make those decisions because I've done it a long time. They weren’t. One of them is an actor-comedian. The other guy is a pro cricket player. Brilliant entertainers. They were great hosts. But their roles were to make people laugh. And my role was to tell people what cars were like."

Image: BBC) BBC)

Chris reflected on previous incidents including one in Thailand.

"And all too often, in the last year, I saw situations where it got too dangerous. And it culminated, actually, in us being in Thailand. Myself and Paddy were in Thailand. And we did a go-kart race down a hill in just compacted mud wooden go-karts with no engines. And I just looked at them, and I said, it's not a question of whether we get injured. It's how injured we get.

"I said to have an ambulance at the bottom, because something's going to go wrong. Sure enough, I broke something in my hand, and broke a finger or what have you. I always said I don't mind breaking my hand if we get a BAFTA for it or an award but this was just a sh** skit. It went on too much."

Reflecting on the meeting with BBC bosses, he adds: "So anyhow, I went to the BBC and I said I want to have a meeting with the head of health and safety because this is not good. And what's really killed me is that no one's ever really acknowledged the fact that I called it beforehand."

He claims the impact of not being heard has really affected him and the BBC "left him to rot".

He says: "It's very difficult to live with that initially for me. When I knew, I thought I'd done the right thing. I'm not very good at that. I normally just go with the flow, but I saw this coming. I thought I did the right thing. I went to the BBC and I found out really that no one had taken me very seriously. I did a bit of digging afterwards. The conversation I had with those people was sort of acknowledged. Then they tried to sort of shut me down a bit. And then they didn't look after me at all. They just sort of left me to rot.

"And even now, I'm totally perplexed by the whole thing. To actually say to an organization, this is going to go wrong, and then be there the day that it goes wrong is a position I never expected to be in, and I never want to be in again. It's strange and pretty heartbreaking in many ways. I love that show.

Image: Matt Gilley/PlymouthLive) Matt Gilley/PlymouthLive)

"They just sort of left me to sweat really. I just didn't really, I just sat in my, where I live and drank whiskey. I didn't have much contact with them at all. Everything went quiet. They had two inquiries into the accident commissioned, neither of which I had access to. I pushed very hard to have access to the second one and saw some of it.

"A bit of me thought as the experienced driver, do the members of the public think that I didn't do enough to protect Andrew? And Paddy as well.

"They both experienced other incidents on that show that I think were unacceptable. And that's coming as someone who loves a bit of risk."

Looking back on Freddie's accident, he says: "At the close of play, end of the day. That's when it goes wrong. If you're a test track, the lights coming down, there's ten minutes to go and the director says just do that again. But the end of the day when you start rushing, and I think there was an element of that day at Dunsfold. That was a shoot that was rushed for me. And I look back, some of the stuff that we did on Top Gear, I look back, that was dangerous, visually dangerous, and definitely was in practical terms."

He says Paddy was injured in one shoot where they wore titanium skid plates on their boots and were dragged along on motorbikes - and the ambulance driver was two miles away smoking a fag.

"Anyhow, Paddy gets in and tries to go really fast and he falls off. And he's OK, but someone goes 'Paddy's over'. I look left the ambulance driver was having a cigarette at our end of the runway and he was two miles down there and that was the one of those moments where I thought’ this has got a bit loose you know if you're gonna do these things that guy should have been running parallel’. I didn't like that."

He says in the aftermath of the accident he drank "world-class quantities of single malt" and got into a "terrible" state.

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