Freddie Flintoff: Top Gear star lashes out at BBC protocol to leave Joe Rogan stunned
Freddie Flintoff
PA
Former Top Gear star Chris Harris has blasted the BBC for ignoring safety concerns as Freddie Flintoff narrowly survived a horrific car crash.
The England cricket legend suffered life-threatening injuries when he was filming for the BBC programme in December 2022.
Flintoff had been driving a three-wheeled car when it flipped at high speeds but he managed to make a recovery, though he has been left with a huge scar on his face.
Co-host Harris thought Flintoff had been killed while he has now come out and criticised the BBC on UFC commentator Joe Rogan's podcast.
Freddie Flintoff was lucky to survive his horrific crash on Top Gear
PA
"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',” Harris said on the Joe Rogan Experience, one of the most popular podcasts in the world.
"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, who as well as being an automotive journalist is a professional racing driver, insisted that his co-hosts Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness did not have the same experience as him when it came to cars.
He further claimed that the BBC did not provide either with enough information regarding three-wheeled cars before the 2005 Ashes star got in.
"He wasn't wearing a crash helmet,” the presenter said of Flintoff.
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“And if you do that, even at 25, 30 miles an hour, the injuries that you sustain are profound."
Rogan was then left stunned as Harris detailed Flintoff's crash, saying: "[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.
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Former Top Gear presenter Chris Harris hit out at the BBC
Joe Rogan Experience
"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.
"It's a very, difficult car, you know.
"You have to be aware of its limitations. And I think that really was difficult, and you need experience.
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"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."