Top Gear host Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff has been hospitalised after an accident at the TV show’s Dunsfold Park Aerodrome circuit in Surrey. The former England cricketer’s injuries are, thankfully, not believed to be life-threatening, and the BBC said further details would follow “in due course.”
Unlike a previous incident in 2019 when Flintoff had a major off in a dragster on Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire, this latest crash is believed to have happened at low speed.
“Freddie was injured in an accident at the Top Gear test track this morning – with crew medics attending the scene immediately. He has been taken to hospital for further treatment and we will confirm more details in due course.”
Driving exotic cars for the world’s most popular car show is not without risk. In 2006 Richard Hammond crashed a Vampire jet-powered dragster which left him in a coma. The bad luck followed Hammond to The Grand Tour where, on a Swiss hillclimb, he destroyed a Rimac Concept One, leaving the course and rolling it down the side of a mountain and was lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries.
On-screen partner James May suffered a head trauma when filming Top Gear in Syria in 2010, and crashed a Mitsubishi Evo in a tunnel in the latest episode of The Grand Tour as well. The daredevil antics of our favourite car show hosts make great TV, but it’s easy to forget there are real dangers involved. We wish Freddie a speedy recovery.
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