Chris Harris: I warned the BBC about Top Gear safety before Freddie Flintoff crash

By Hannah Roberts, PA Entertainment Reporter

Former Top Gear star Chris Harris said he raised safety concerns with the BBC before Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff was injured on the show's test track, telling them someone could die.

Flintoff, 46, was seriously injured in an accident while filming at Dunsfold Airfield in December 2022, leading to the BBC suspending the show for the “foreseeable future”.

In the podcast “Joe Rogan Experience,” Harris, 49, said of the accident: “I ran to the window, looked out, and he wasn't moving.

“So I thought he was dead. I assumed he was, but then he moved.”

He added: “What I find really difficult is that the show was put on hold after the accident.

“Andrew had to recover from really bad injuries and that’s what he did – serious injuries.

“We all kept quiet. We didn't say anything, and I didn't say anything because I wanted to take care of him. It wasn't my story, was it?

“I was involved in the collateral damage.

“I lost my job immediately because they canceled the show when my contract was up, so suddenly I had no job.”

He added: “And I just put my head down. But I saw this coming.

“There was a big investigation, a lot of self-reflection. The BBC is good at that.”

“But what was never talked about was that three months before the accident I went to the BBC and said, 'If you don't change something, someone is going to die on this show.'

“So I went to them, I went to the BBC, and told them my concerns as I was by far the most experienced driver on the show.

“I said, 'If we continue like this, there will be at least serious injuries, at worst a death.'”

Harris also said he had requested a meeting with the head of health and safety.

He added: “What really killed me is that no one ever really acknowledged that I predicted it beforehand.”

He continued: “I thought I did the right thing. I'm not very good at that. I usually just go with the flow, but I saw this coming.”

“I thought I had done the right thing. I went to the BBC and found that nobody really took me seriously.”

Former Take Me Out presenter Paddy McGuinness and Flintoff appeared on the show in 2019, along with motor journalist and racing driver Harris.

The BBC was asked for comment.