By Jack Peat.
The BBC said it would be “inappropriate” to continue.
Filming of the latest series of
Top Gear will not resume after presenter
Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff was
injured in a car crash last year.
The England cricket legend was behind the wheel while shooting an episode of the
BBC motoring show at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey
when the accident happened.
His
16-year-old son, Corey, revealed he was
lucky to be alive after the crash, which saw his open-topped three-wheel Morgan Super 3 car flipped and slid along the track when he was driving at high speed.
Flintoff’s co-stars Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness were also at the Top Gear test track.
The BBC has now said it will not resume filming the latest series of the show, even though an investigation into the accident by the Health and Safety Executive found no evidence of serious failings.
“Under the circumstances, we feel it would be inappropriate to resume making series 34 of Top Gear at this time,” a spokesperson said. “We understand this will be disappointing for fans, but it is the right thing to do, and we’ll make a judgment about how best to continue later this year.”
The BBC added that it had apologised to Flintoff, and the accident had affected the team who produce the show.
Flintoff has already had one high-speed crash while filming the show. In 2019 he crashed at 125mph while travelling in a three-wheeled cycle car, but managed to walk away from the scene.
Thirteen years earlier, former presenter Richard Hammond was left in a coma after crashing at the Elvington airfield in York in a jet-powered Vampire dragster while travelling at 288mph.
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