Flintoff ‘thought he had died’ in Top Gear crash
Andrew Flintoff has given his first account of the car crash he was in while filming Top Gear, saying he thought he “was dead” in the immediate aftermath.
The England cricketer-turned-TV presenter sustained serious facial and rib injuries when the three-wheeler car he was driving for the BBC motoring programme rolled over in 2022.
Speaking in a new Disney+ documentary, ‘Freddie’ Flintoff said that despite the trauma, he “remembers everything about it”.
“I thought I was dead, because I was conscious but I couldn’t see anything,” he recalled.
‘Frightened to death’
“I was thinking, is that it? Is that it? You know what I mean? Just black for the rest of my days?
“My hat came over my eyes – so I pulled my hat up and I thought, no I’m not [dead], I’m on the Top Gear track, this is not heaven.”
Flintoff then looked down to see blood, and said his “biggest fear” was that he no longer had a face left.
“I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death.”
He recalled being in “agony” for between half an hour and 40 minutes until an air ambulance arrived and he was taken to hospital.
The incident took place on 13 December 2022 at Top Gear’s test track at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey.
He was driving an open-topped Morgan Super 3 when it flipped and slid, dragging him along the track during filming.
Speaking in the documentary, he described how time seemed to slow down as the car rolled over, and how his quick reactions as a cricketer allowed him to move his head in an attempt to avoid even worse injuries.
“As it started going over, I looked at the ground and I knew, if I get hit here on the side [of the head] then I’ll break my neck, or if I get hit on the temple I’m dead. The best chance is to go face down.
“And then I remember hitting [the ground] and my head got hit,” he added. “But then I got dragged out, and the car went over, and I went over the back of the car, and then [I got] pulled face down on the runway about 50m underneath the car. And then I hit the grass and then [it] flipped back.”
Surgeon Jahrad Haq, who treated Flintoff, told the documentary the injuries were “very complex” – a mixture of hard and soft tissue injuries, broken teeth, lost teeth and elements of the upper jaw bone that were also fractured and displaced.
He “lost a really significant portion of his upper lip – the skin and some of the underlying muscle – and also his lower lip,” he said.
Mr Haq said the injuries were in the “top five” in terms of severity of those he had seen during his career.
‘Cricket saved him’
Reflecting on the recovery, Flintoff said he “didn’t think I had it in me to get through” the ordeal.
“This sounds awful. Part of me wishes I’d been killed. Part of me thinks I wish I’d died,” he added.
“I didn’t want to kill myself. I don’t want to mistake the two things. I was not wishing, but thinking, this would have been so much easier…
“Now I try to take the attitude, you know what, the sun will come up tomorrow, and then my kids will still give me a hug, and I’m probably in a better place now.”
One of England’s most successful cricketers, Flintoff previously said he is “loving” his return to the sport coaching England Lions – the development squad underneath England Men’s cricket team.
Flintoff’s wife Rachael told the documentary his return to the sport was crucial on the road to recovery.
“When Andrew needed it most, cricket was there for him,” she said. “It sounds a bit weird saying it, a bit over the top to say, but I do think cricket saved him. It gave him a reason for being, again.”
The 47-year-old also returned to television last year with a second series of his BBC programme Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, which saw him take a team of young cricketers from his hometown of Preston on a tour of India, a year after his crash.
The acclaimed series is up for a Bafta Television Award in the factual series category next month.
He also hosted a reboot of darts game show Bullseye over Christmas, which will return for a full series later this year.
In 2023, the BBC “rested” Top Gear for the foreseeable future. A financial settlement was also reached with Flintoff.
The documentary, titled Flintoff, is on Disney+ from Friday, 25 April.
