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Freddie Flintoff shares harrowing decision that saved his life during horror Top Gear crash
25 April 2025, 06:58 | Updated: 6 May 2025, 13:53
- Freddie Flintoff was involved in a near-fatal car crash while filming 'Top Gear' in December 2022
- The 47-year-old suffered life-changing injuries, admitting it would have been 'easier' to die
- The legendary cricketer opens up about his terrifying ordeal in new Disney+ documentary 'Flintoff'
- Listen on Global Player now: Legends of the Ashes, Narrated by Stephen Fry
Freddie Flintoff made a split-second call that gave him 'the best chance' of survival during his Top Gear crash – here, he recounts the stomach-churning moment.
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Freddie Flintoff has opened up about the split-second decision that saved his life during the terrifying Top Gear crash he suffered in December 2022.
The England cricketer, 46, was left with horrific facial injuries and broken ribs after the near-fatal incident, which happened at Surrey’s Dunsfold Park Aerodrome while filming for the BBC motoring show.
But he has since admitted the repercussions could have been so much worse if he hadn't relied on his sporting senses to make one crucial decision.
As his open-topped three-wheel Morgan Super 3 sports car flipped through the air, the father-of-four experienced a moment of clarity and approached the collision like a cricket game.
Warning: graphic images below
He explained in his new Disney+ documentary, Flintoff: "[In cricket] you get 0.4 seconds to make your mind up where the ball's going, what shot are you going to play, how are you going to move your feet.
"It’s so weird. As it started going over, I looked at the ground and I knew that if I went on the side, I’d break my neck. If I hit my temple, I’m dead. The best chance is [to] go face down."
Freddie confessed that part of him 'wishes he had been killed' in the terrifying ordeal as it would have been "easier" to die than to face the gruelling recovery.
He said: "After the accident, I didn’t think I had it in me to get through. This sounds awful: part of me wishes I had been killed. Part of me thinks, ‘I wish I had died.’
“I didn’t want to kill myself – don’t mistake the two things – but I was thinking: 'This would have been so much easier.'"
Revealing the exact details of the high-speed smash, which was shown for the first time during the Disney+ documentary, he recounted: "It was a three-wheeler, [with] a reinforced windscreen, so I’m exposed.
"Probably doing about 40-45 [miles per hour]. The wheel came up at the front. It’s a funny thing rolling a car because it’s a point of no return and everything slows down.
"I remember hitting [my jaw] but then I got dragged out. The car went over, then I went over the back of the car and then [I] was pulled facedown on the runway about 50 meters underneath the car.
"Then it hit the grass and flipped back. I thought I was dead because I was conscious but I couldn’t see anything. I was thinking, ‘Is that it?’ Black for the rest of my days.
"But I had a hat over my eyes. So I pulled my hat up and I thought, ‘No I’m not, I’m alive. It’s the Top Gear track. This is not heaven’."
He added: "I looked down and the blood just started coming down and my biggest fear was I didn’t think I had a face. I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death."
Freddie, who shares four children with his wife; Holly, 20, Corey, 19, Rocky, 17, and Preston, five, admitted his youngest son was scared of his facial scars at first.
Following the crash, the doting dad was airlifted to hospital and treated for severe facial wounds, which altered his face.
He spoke about the "heartbreaking" moment his son saw him for the first time, revealing: "He wouldn’t come near me to begin with, I think it frightened him, my face."
Freddie's wife Rachael Wools, who has been married to the sportsman since 2005, also spoke about the moment she laid eyes on him after the horrific accident.
She said: "When I did see him I walked in the room, he was in the bed… his eyes. I’ve never seen someone so scared in his eyes.
"He was looking at me to know how bad he was so I totally pulled myself together and I just didn’t cry. I just said ‘It’s fine, you’re going to be OK. I can’t believe how amazing you look.’”
"Before we got home, I did call the kids and said to them you have to be as strong as you’ve ever been. Your dad does look different at the moment.
"It’s going to get better but I don’t want you to look shocked and horrified because that’s going to knock him.
"That was hard. Andrew doesn’t know I did that."
- Read more: What happened between Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness? Their friendship fallout explained
