Driver Who Coached Flintoff Before Top Gear Crash Sues BBC Studios for Up to £150,000

A legal fight most people didn't know existed is now playing out in a UK court. Paul Rees, a 41-year-old racing driver from Oxfordshire, was in the passenger seat of the Morgan Super 3 when Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff crashed it while filming Top Gear on December 13, 2022, according to BBC News. Rees is now suing BBC Studios for up to £150,000 in personal injury damages, court documents show.

Until this filing became public, nobody outside the production knew a second person was in that open-topped, three-wheeled car when it flipped at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey. Flintoff, the former England cricket captain and one of Top Gear's three co-hosts at the time, suffered serious facial and rib injuries. He's described being dragged face-down for roughly 50 meters underneath the car, telling a Disney+ documentary released last year, "I thought I was dead."

BBC News reviewed Rees' claim form, filed in December 2025, but has not yet reported the full details of his claim. Rees and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment, so his side of the story remains largely unknown beyond what's in the initial filing.

What BBC Studios Says Happened

BBC Studios is fighting the claim, and its defense filing paints a specific picture. The car had microphones running, and according to those recordings, Flintoff voiced concern at one point when the vehicle's front wheel lifted during a corner. Rees reassured him it couldn't roll over, the filing states.

Approaching the same corner again, Rees told Flintoff to "now turn right... now full power, full power," according to BBC Studios' court documents. The front wheel lifted again, and because Flintoff kept applying power on Rees' instruction, the Morgan turned over, the filing claims.

BBC Studios denies it was negligent "as alleged or at all" and argues Rees' own "faulty instructions" caused the accident. The company also says Rees never mentioned any injury at the time of the crash or afterward. "We dispute this claim and are defending it," a BBC Studios spokesperson said. "As it's now before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment further."

An Unproven Claim, Not a Settled Fact

Rees has filed a claim form seeking damages. That's a documented fact. What BBC Studios says the cockpit audio shows is also documented in its own defense filing. But the reasonable version of Rees' case, that a broadcaster with a duty of care put an untested vehicle and inexperienced driver in a dangerous position, hasn't been laid out publicly yet because Rees hasn't spoken and the full claim details haven't been reported.

A driving expert brought in to coach a TV presenter arguably shares some responsibility if his advice, in real time, was wrong. Whether that rises to legal fault for BBC Studios, as opposed to personal fault by Rees himself, is exactly the question a court will now have to sort out. No verdict, settlement, or admission of liability has been reported in either direction.

The Bigger Picture for Top Gear

Flintoff reached his own compensation settlement with the BBC in 2023, the terms of which were not disclosed publicly. He's said he didn't leave his house for six months after the crash except for medical appointments, and has spoken about ongoing nightmares tied to the incident.

The BBC "rested" Top Gear following the crash, and has reportedly been exploring whether to bring the show back, according to BBC News. A second lawsuit over an incident the corporation thought it had put behind it complicates that calculus, regardless of how the Rees case is resolved.

The unresolved question now sits with the court: did BBC Studios owe Rees a duty of care as an off-camera advisor riding in a production vehicle, or was he, as the broadcaster argues, the author of his own accident through bad instructions given in the moment? No trial date has been reported yet.