‘I had to ride myself home’: Ex-Top Gear star explodes at BBC over horror crash treatment amid £9m Freddie Flintoff payout – ‘They gave me £6,000!’
Former Top Gear host Steve Berry has accused the BBC of failing to fulfil its duty of care after he suffered a horror crash while filming for the broadcaster’s flagship motoring programme.
Berry, who was a member of the presenting team from 1993 to 1999, told GB News that BBC bosses were too busy “covering their a***es” to arrange a lift back from the hospital or even tell his then wife about the accident.
In a furious rant on the People’s Channel, Berry said he was given £6,000 by the corporation in compensation.
He contrasted that to the £9m settlement Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff reached with the BBC after he was hurt in an accident while filming Top Gear last year.
Describing his injuries to Tom Harwood and Miriam Cates, Berry delivered a graphic account which included his scalp being “stapled” back onto his head.
Asked about Flintoff’s incident, he said: “I notice there’s no mention of the one [crash] that happened to me when I was a Top Gear presenter where I ended up upside down in a ditch and had to burrow my way out of the wreckage.
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“I was then taken to hospital having been scalped with numerous injuries and was told to keep quiet and not tell anybody about it and, get this, I had to ride back from the hospital to my house on a motorcycle because everybody was running around covering their a**e – too busy.
“When I got home, my then wife didn’t even know it had happened. I had to tell her. ‘Don’t tell anyone Steve, you will have to be quiet’, they just paid off the guy whose Lotus classic car was completely written off in the accident.
“The only trace of this is on my Wikipedia page which says at the bottom, ‘we love getting together as presenters so we could have a good laugh about what Steve Berry had crashed that week’, from Jeremy Clarkson.
“They had a good laugh at my expense. Things were very different 25 years ago, but I don’t want to undermine what happened to Freddie Flintoff.
“I imagine the £9 million he got for this, £6,000 I got for mine by the way, plus the wave of public sympathy, absolutely marvellous.”
Miriam paused Berry in his train of thought to offer her sympathies, only for him to react furiously.
“Nobody has got any idea what happened to me, they just had a good laugh about it.
“I had to burrow my way out of that car like a badger and my hands were cut to shreds and I had to ride home, having been scalped. I had to have my scalp stapled back onto my head.
“They told me to keep quiet about it. I got £6,000, and I did keep quiet.”
Asked whether his and Flintoff’s cases reflect an environment where “too many risks” are taken, Berry admitted he “doesn’t know”.
He continued: “I have been at this for 42 years. Every single racer I know, and I know a lot of them, has had at least one biggie [big crash].
“Some of them aren’t around any longer. I started out as a motorcycle journalist. I am from the Top Gear era where we all started out as journalists. That’s how they selected people.
“They thought it was probably a good idea to let somebody who was expressing an opinion on a car or motorbike on television actually know what they were talking about rather than being the funny good looking one off Friends.
“Call me old-fashioned, but that’s the way the BBC used to do business.
“It’s just dangerous. Once you start messing about with cars and motorbikes, you’re rolling the dice every time you do it. I feel sorry for Freddie but that £9 million must lighten the mood somewhat.”
It comes after Flintoff, another ex-Top Gear host, opened up on his horror crash during filming for the BBC show.
The cricket legend opened up on his experience in a new Disney+ documentary which offers viewers a candid insight into his life-threatening incident that occurred while filming in 2022.
In the documentary, Flintoff makes the heartbreaking admission: “After the accident I didn’t think I had it in me to get through. This sounds awful…part of me wishes I’d been killed. Part of me thinks, I wish I’d died.”
The programme includes graphic images showing the significant facial injuries he sustained during the crash.
The documentary features stills from the crash site that occurred during Top Gear filming.
The BBC refused to comment.