Host Chris Harris Tells Joe Rogan: I Warned BBC “Someone Is Going To Die” Before Freddie Flintoff Crash Forced Show Off

https://deadline.com/2024/09/top-gear-chris-harris-joe-rogan-warned-bbc-accident-freddie-flintoff-1236080006/

Appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience, Harris revealed that he warned the BBC that “someone is going to die” on Top Gear unless health and safety standards were improved.

Harris said he made his concerns known months before co-host Freddie Flintoff suffered serious facial injuries during an accident at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey on December 13, 2022.

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 told Rogan.

The automotive journalist said he felt a responsibility to the safety of his co-presenters, Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness, because he was the most experienced driver of the three.

He continued: “I said: ‘If we carry on, at the very least we’re going to have a serious injury and the very worst, we’re going to have a fatality … All too often, I saw situations where it got too dangerous.”

Harris pointed to an incident in Thailand, during which he and McGuinness rode engineless go-karts down a dusty hill. He broke his hand during filming and said it was a “s*** piece of television.”

“I did the right thing, I went to the BBC, and I found out that no one had taken me very seriously,” he said. “I did a bit of digging afterwards. The conversation I had with those people was sort of acknowledged. Then they tried to shut me down.”

Harris said he was blocked from accessing two inquiries into the Flintoff accident, though he acknowledged that he was talked through some of the findings. “The whole situation was ridiculous,” he said.

The incident has sparked speculation about the future of Top Gear, with BBC sources telling Deadline that the show may never return. The BBC insists that no decision has been made.

JRE & Harris: https://youtu.be/5Kx0S2Y6hJI