Top Gear crash instructor seeks compensation from BBC Studios

Paul Rees is seeking compensation from BBC Studios over the Top Gear crash that left him injured during filming at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey in December 2022. BBC Studios is disputing the claim, which seeks up to £150,000 for personal injury, pain and suffering.

Rees was in the open-topped Morgan Super 3 with Andrew Flintoff when the car flipped and slid on the Top Gear test track. Court documents cited in reports say Rees had been hired as an instructor on the show and had been giving Flintoff expert driving advice from the passenger seat before the crash.

The accident had severe consequences for Flintoff. He suffered broken ribs and a fractured upper jaw, and later needed extensive facial surgery. The injuries left his appearance permanently altered, and Flintoff later received a reported £9 million settlement from BBC Studios.

The fallout extended well beyond the two men in the car. The BBC rested Top Gear for the foreseeable future after the crash, ending any immediate return for a show that had long been one of its most visible entertainment brands. Flintoff later spoke publicly in 2024 about the incident and said it had left him with serious psychological and physical effects.

Rees’s claim now brings the focus back to the safety and duty-of-care questions surrounding the production. An instructor hired to guide a presenter in a lightweight, open-topped performance car was riding in the passenger seat when the vehicle overturned, raising fresh scrutiny over how risk was managed on set and how much responsibility BBC Studios carried for the people it placed in that environment.