Yahoo Autos Chris Harris Opens Up about Just How Traumatic Freddie Flintoff's Top Gear Crash Was
Top Gear, as most enthusiasts knew it, ended in December 2022. That was the month when one of its three hosts, Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff, rolled a Morgan 3 Wheeler and sustained serious injuries. Now, after a long silence, one of his co-hosts, Chris Harris, is opening up about what went down.
Above photo: Top Gear presenters Fred Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness, and Chris Harris, on October 22, 2018.
Speaking to Joe Rogan in a video that was uploaded Thursday, Harris described how Flintoff, who was a car enthusiast but a cricket player by trade, would often ask for advice on what to expect from difficult cars. The Morgan is, by Harris' recounting, a tricky car to handle fundamentally. Reports about the situation indicate that Flintoff rolled the car at relatively low speeds. Harris said that when he first saw the scene, he initially thought Flintoff, who wasn't wearing a helmet, had died.
"Because of the call times that day, that was the first time that we'd never had the chance to talk about how he might approach a difficult vehicle, and that was the one day 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," said Harris.
The host also said that months before this accident, he went out of his way to warn the BBC about safety concerns around stunts, but feels he wasn't taken seriously.
"I had seen this coming," Harris said. He claims he told the BBC that "Someone is going to die" based on what was happening during filming. During a shoot in Thailand, the pair had gone down a hill in wooden go-karts and Harris broke his hand. That was enough to push him to bring up safety concerns.
According to the presenter, nobody has acknowledged that he tried to call it out before Flintoff's accident. At one point Harris tells Rogan, "If you and I went outside now and there were two quad bikes, I'd happily roll it for a laugh with you, I'm that guy... and even me as that guy thought it had gone too far."
One thing Harris harped on over and over again is how vital driving experience is. He believes that because Flintoff lacked hardcore performance driving experience, the stunts he took on had more risk potential. As Harris pointed out, Flintoff is lucky to have walked away from the wreck at all.
The BBC did not immediately respond to Road & Track's request for comment.
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