Clarkson's car accident agony backfires

Clarkson's in trouble again. Not, this time, for a dangerous and rather foolhardy stunt that he professes was enacted to show drivers what a car accident is really like, but because he made a possibly slanderous wisecrack regarding lorry drivers.

There has been rather a lot of BBC bashing of late, or rather presenter pole axing, for want of better alliterative phraseology, but that is not the focus of this piece. I shall buck the trend of disgruntled whining about the overpaid, under-matured, wheezing jests of media mega-stars who should really know better (although I have a sneaking suspicion that, actually they do know better, and at least one of them merely wanted a three month holiday and didn't know how else to get it) and focus on the truck stunt, performed by the aforementioned overgrown schoolboy who goes by the name of Jeremy.

When I scanned the headlines on Monday, I saw a few lead lines saying things like, "Clarkson in screaming agony after crash" and "Top Gear truck crash stunt". However, on closer inspection of all but the BBC's own story, reportage quickly moved from the whiplash injury inducing head-on smash, to Clarkson's inane and rather pathetic quips about those who drive trucks for a living.

So, although I am no JC lover (nor am I a hater of the man who does have a knack for making me and the rest of my family laugh), I am going to look at the stunt from the point of view of someone who regularly comments on car accidents and their catastrophic consequences.

I have yet to see the show in full (my son advises me it was the funniest thing he's seen in a long time), but I have watched the 51 seconds of actual crash footage and from the snippets of banter between presenters I am guessing that they were trying to see what would slow down a truck the quickest, or some such idiocy.

Anyway, pardon me if that is not the case, and it doesn't really matter why it was deemed necessary to crash a Renault Magnum lorry through a brick wall at its maximum legal speed of 56mph, the real point of the spectacular act was that even the shameless machismo of Mr Manly himself could not cover up the pain and bodyshock that he endured.

Unlike a driver going about his day-to-day business, that Clarkson knew this impact was going to happen; the truck's windscreen had been caged and a large proportion of it appeared to have been taped up. The presenter was wearing safety glasses, a neck brace, a crash helmet and what looked like protective gloves and body armour.

The force of the impact on the lorry's cab caused the whole tractor to lift and jerk backwards. Inside the cab, the presenter was thrown, typically as in most front impact whiplash accidents, violently forwards and then his head was wrenched back. He yelled out and the pain was instantly apparent on his face. Instinctively he grabbed at his head and neck, letting go of the steering wheel, itself an extremely dangerous action at the helm of such a huge moving object. Then as the truck halted he appeared to grab at his chest.

A spokeswoman for the show said Mr Clarkson was "quite badly injured".

He admitted himself, "I emerged from my high speed head-on impact in what can only be described as screaming agony. I couldn't walk. I couldn't talk. I couldn't think.

"Everyone should experience this before they are given a licence. It would let them know that crashes really really hurt and that it would be a good idea to not have one."

Whilst I am fairly certain, the motive behind the stunt was not a selfless, philanthropic fact-finding mission, I am sure that this extremely useful message about the dangers of reckless driving has been lost behind the furore regarding a badly timed joke. And I think this is a shame.

Car accidents, crashes, road traffic incidents; call them what you will, they devastate lives and any "stunt" that highlights this should be given maximum press coverage for those reasons and those reasons alone. Bravo Mr Clarkson, but please, in future, try keeping your mouth shut and the message might get through.

Can I claim?