Top Gear Canceled After Devastating Crash Stops Production

The BBC released an official statement in which they revealed that Top Gear would not be returning to television “for the foreseeable future.” In the statement, the BBC also made sure to specify that they had “decided to rest the UK show” specifically leaving any other adaptations of the popular car series off the hook.

The decision to take Top Gear off the air in the UK came after an external health and safety investigation was performed following last year’s accident. While the BBC has no plans to publish the results of the investigation, a different health and safety report based on past seasons of Top Gear found that there were definitely areas in which the production could improve its safety protocols. One can only assume that the unpublished report revealed something similar, given the BBC’s decision to keep Top Gear off the air.

Freddie Flintoff was airlifted to a hospital last December after suffering a high-speed crash while filming the show. He was filming at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey, a regular location for Top Gear segments when the accident took place. The crash was not Flintoff’s first accident.

The Top Gear host had previously lost control of a motorized trike going 124 miles per hour back in 2019. Flintoff had been engaged in a race against his co-hosts, Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness, when he crashed the trike.

Following the most recent accident, the BBC issued an apology to Flintoff and settled with the presenter out of court for a reported £ 9 million ($ 11,285,505.00). Flintoff has been spotted out and about sporting facial injuries related to the crash. The Top Gear host’s legal team has recently announced that Flintoff is “still recovering from life-altering injuries.”

Top Gear might just be the most dangerous show on television. Not only has Flintoff suffered two different crashes while filming the series, but there have been other severe accidents on set as well. In 2006, former Top Gear host Richard Hammond was nearly killed during an incident at York’s Elvington airfield. Hammond was driving a jet-propelled dragster at 288 miles per hour in an attempt to break the British land speed recorded when he spun out.

Hammond suffered what Doctors described as “a significant brain injury” and spent two weeks in a coma following the accident.

The BBC has stated that it “remains committed to Freddie, Chris and Paddy,” calling the three hosts “the heart of the show’s renaissance since 2019.” The broadcaster claims to also have new projects in the works involving all three of the hosts that Top Gear fans will find out more about in the near future. The BBC stated that they knew that putting the show on indefinite hiatus would be “disappointing news for fans” but that it was “the right thing to do.”