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7 months ago
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Ben Fogle has revealed his 'life flashed before his eyes' in yet another near-death experience this week, after almost being hit by delivery van near his home in the village of Fawley outside Henley, Oxfordshire.
The shaken TV adventurer, 50, said he 'nearly died' as the delivery driver 'careered around a blind bend, threw on its brakes and skidded to a halt just a few feet from me and my dog'.
In a lengthy Instagram post on Friday, Ben, who has previously overcome hypothermia, a flesh-eating parasite, and having his drink spiked, issued a desperate plea for the council to reduce the 60mph speed limit to 20mph
He went onto recall how his two teenage children have also come close to injury on the road.
Recalling the near death experience, the presenter said: 'I nearly died yesterday. Not on Everest or in some remote jungle. Not on an Ocean or in a desert, but on a small single track lane outside my home in rural Oxfordshire.
'Given the things I have done and the risks I have taken, it feels a little ironic that my own near death experience should happen so close to home. Let me explain...
Ben Fogle has revealed his 'life flashed before his eyes' in yet another near-death experience this week, after almost being hit by delivery van near his home in the village of Fawley
The shaken TV adventurer, 50, said he 'nearly died' as the delivery driver 'careered around a blind bend, threw on its breaks and skidded to a halt just a few feet from me and my dog'
'I was running along the road with my dog at my side. I don't run along the road because I want to run on the road but most land is private. I run along the road because it is the only way to reach the fewer and fewer paths and bridleways.
'A delivery driver driving at the perfectly legal, but obviously dangerous 60mph, careered around one of the many blind bends, threw on its breaks and skidded to a halt just a few feet from me and my dog.
'My life flashed before my eyes. Just as it had done when my boat capsized on the Atlantic Ocean and when my oxygen bottle exploded on Everest, but this was on a dog walk outside my home.'
Ben described the village, home to several hundred people, as 'idyllic with children, dogs, horses, farmers and a thriving social community'.
The presenter, who has six dogs and is married to wife Marna, has started a petition to reduce the current 60mph speed limit to 20mph before a fatality occurs after his two children son Ludo, 15, and 13-year-old daughter Iona also had near misses on separate occasions.
He said: 'While my daughter rides her pony along the road because it is the only way to reach the fewer and fewer bridleways, delivery drivers race at the legal 60mph around blind bends to meet home delivery time targets.
'While my son cycles on his bike with the dogs, day visitors, blindly following sat nav and the 60mph speed limit career along the single track pavement, sorry road.
'The only way I can reach the limited footpaths is on the same single track road that I must share with 60mph delivery drivers.
A timeline of Ben Fogle's brushes with death
2000 - Ben faced gruelling conditions while appearing on the BBC series Castaway, where he and 35 others were marooned on an uninhabited island
2009 - Ben endured gruelling treatment - after a battle with pneumonia - after contracting the flesh-eating bug Leishmaniasis
2009 - Ben and his pal James Cracknell overcame frostbite and hypothermia while trekking to The South Pole
2013 - Ben suffered a 'psychotic episode' and admitted he tried to 'kill himself' after his drink was spiked at a rural pub in The Cotswolds
2015 - Ben risked drowning while fishing in the high-speed waters of The Mekong River in Laos
2018 - Ben climbed through the so-called 'death zone' to reach the summit of Mount Everest
2023 - Ben is bitten by a deadly snake while meeting the Mbendjele people in The Congo
2024 - Ben revealed he 'nearly died' after almost being hit by delivery van near his home in the village of Fawley.
The presenter has started a petition to reduce the current 60mph speed limit to 20mph on the road which his wife and teenage daughter take regularly on horses
Ben shared photos of his family on the single track road and told how blind spots and high speeds have meant they have had some near misses
He went on to claim his two children had also nearly come close to the injury due to the area's current 60mph speed limit (L-R) Iona, 13, Ludo 15,
In a lengthy post, Ben explained how the incident occurred during a walk with one of his six dogs, with the vehicle narrowly missing the beloved pet
Ben, who shares his children with wife Marina, made a desperate plea to reduce the current speed saying it was 'common sense' before a fatality occurred
In a lengthy post he wrote: 'I nearly died yesterday. Not on Everest or in some remote jungle. Not on an Ocean or in a desert, but on a small single track lane outside my home in Oxfordshire
'I love living here in this rural idyllic, but I don't want to die because our local council doesn't see fit to implement a 20mph limit for a community that relies on the road as our pavement too.
'We have imposed the 20mph in places which already have pavements. I am a risk taker, so I don't say this lightly. Someone is going to get killed in our village. Both of my children have had near encounters with speeding traffic.
He added: 'We are not alone. There are countless other small villages out there who also live with 60mph speed limits through the heart of their community. It is common sense. Our local councillor has tried to no avail. Please help us, before we lose someone.'
He then captioned the post saying that a member of the Buckinghamshire Council cabinet for Transport guidance has said the speed limit had been 'set against the 'department transport guidance''.
He concluded no changes would be made until there was a serious accident.
The petition, which runs until May, has already got nearly 3,000 signatures.
Sharing photos of himself and his family on the road, he wrote: 'Here are a few family photos of us walking along the pavement that we share with cars, trucks, and lorries traveling at 60 mph.
'The only way to move through our village is along the road. We have had multiple near misses.
The TV adventurer said it was 'ironic' it had not happened during one of his trips to the jungle or desert (pictured in the Scottish Highlands)
Ben said no changes would be made until there was a serious accident (Village of Henley pictured)
'Dogs have been run over and horses spooked. We have had crashes and cyclist crashes, but this is not enough for Buckinghamshire Council to respect the village's pleas to reduce the speed limit.'
'We need as many signatures as we can get before they will act.'
Steven Broadbent, Buckinghamshire Council's Cabinet Member for Transport, told MailOnline: 'I am sorry to hear of this resident's encounter with a dangerously driven delivery vehicle. Our speed limits are set against Department for Transport guidance. The guidance considers the hierarchy of the road, its character, traffic/pedestrian volumes, vehicle speeds, collision history, and infrastructure in the area to ensure limits are appropriate and legally enforceable.
'As always, we remain responsive to changes in local road and traffic conditions and consider speed limit changes on a case-by-case basis but cannot always agree to every request received.
'We are aware of the ePetition that is calling for the speed limit through Fawley to be reduced from 60mph to 20mph. Local residents are of course welcome to add their names and the matter will then be considered formally. The ePetition is open until 10 May 2024.'
This is far from the first brush with death that the daring adventurer Ben has had, with one of his first being in 2009.
While Ben began planning his huge trek to Antarctica with pal James Cracknell, he was unknowingly bitten by a sand fly while filming Extreme Dreams for the BBC in the jungles of Peru.
This bite turned into the flesh-eating bug Leishmaniasis, which affects around two million people every year, and Ben previously shared that he contracted pneumonia and lost several kilos of weight during the gruelling treatment.
He told The Mail On Sunday in 2009: 'Even though I'm generally chilled about things, I started to panic.
'I'm not a vain guy, but the thought of possible permanent facial disfigurement was very scary. I work in TV; what prospects would I have with half a face?
'I didn't know how quickly it might happen - in a day, or a week? I'd also heard that the treatment was archaic and notoriously unpleasant.
'When the doctor showed me a bottle of the toxic medicine I'd have to have pumped into me, it scarily had the word Poison written in big red letters on the side, with a skull and crossbones.'
While Ben completed his course of treatment, the lesion on his arm re-opened during his Arctic trek, and he required another round when he returned to the UK.
Ben overcame the skin-eating disease that nearly forced him to cancel his trek to the South Pole, but the adventure itself was far from easy.
Surviving on just four hours of sleep a night, Ben overcame frostbite and hypothermia during the expedition.
He previously told The Telegraph: 'It's the hardest thing I've ever done. We had two weeks to acclimatise but you forget about how dangerous Antarctica can be.
'It started with frostbite, then I burnt my lips, got blisters on my feet and had a bit of hypothermia. It all just starts to get on top of you. There were many days when I thought we were not going to finish the race.'
In 2020 Ben also revealed that he suffered a 'psychotic episode' and even tried to 'kill himself' after his drink was spiked at a rural pub in The Cotswolds in 2013.
Warning others of the dangers of having one's drink spiked, he also tried to combat the stigma faced by victims of similar incidents as he said the 'Twitter pile on' he was subjected to at the time made him feel further victimised.
In a lengthy caption, he said: 'Several years ago, in 2013 to be precise, my drink was spiked with an unknown substance that resulted in a psychotic episode that saw me hospitalised.
'It was one of the scariest experiences of my life but the response was even more disappointing...
This is far from Ben's first brush with death as in 2009, he contracted a flesh-eating bug after being bitted by a sand fly in Peru
Ben overcame the skin-eating disease that nearly forced him to cancel his trek to the South Pole, but the adventure itself wasn't easy (pictured recreating a historic trek for a 2023 series)
Surviving on just four hours of sleep a night, Ben overcame frostbite and hypothermia during the expedition
In 2020 Ben revealed that he suffered a 'psychotic episode' and even tried to 'kill himself' after his drink was spiked at a rural pub in The Cotswolds in 2013
While travelling down the Mekong River in Laos, Ben shared that he nearly drowned while trying to recreate the perils faced by fisherman checking their traps
Never one to shy away from an adventure, in 2018, Ben climbed the summit of Mount Everest , in the memory of his stillborn son Willem
The trip was not without problems. He had to scale the final 2,700ft, known as the 'death zone', alone after his climbing partner, Victoria Pendleton, was forced to abandon the challenge
While staying with the Mbendjele people in The Congo for a series in 2023, Ben revealed that he was accidentally bitten by a snake after mistaking it for a fish
'Then talking about the dangers of drinks being spiked, he went on: 'The impact of drink spiking cannot be underestimated.
'The unknown drug caused a psychotic episode during which I tried to kill my self. I spent weeks undergoing psychological and medical testing to ensure it wasn't self induced by illness.
'Multiple doctors concluded that it was indeed an external drug that had caused the psychosis and yet there was no recrimination, just suspicion as to why and how I had been spiked.'
In 2015, Ben journeyed to the Mekong River, which runs from Tibet through China, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.
Appearing on the competition series Big Fish, Ben joined a local fisherman checking whether his traps on the fast-moving waters were successful, putting him at serious risk of drowning.
He told The Radio Times: 'One wrong move and I would have been swept into the fury of water downstream. ,
'I dived and could feel myself jostled by the swirling currents; the weight of the river dragged at my legs as I grabbed for one of the branches and clambered to safety.'
In 2018, Ben climbed the summit of Mount Everest, in the memory of his stillborn son Willem.
'At 7.30am on the 16th April, after more than five weeks of acclimatising and training on Mount Everest, I finally realised a childhood dream when I successfully summited the 8848m mountain,' the TV star said, as he shared a photo of himself on top of the world's highest peak.
The trip was not without problems. He had to scale the final 2,700ft, known as the 'death zone', alone after his climbing partner, Victoria Pendleton, was forced to abandon the challenge.
The Olympic cyclist began suffering from the effects of hypoxia - oxygen deficiency - at Camp 2, 6,400 metres above sea level, and required additional oxygen to alleviate her symptoms.
And while staying with the Mbendjele people in The Congo for a series in 2023, Ben revealed that he was accidentally bitten by a snake after mistaking it for a fish.
Recalling the experience on The One Show, he said: 'The fish that they catch are tiny. They are like an inch long.
'I mistook a very small snake for one of the fish and they all warned me that if I had been bitten that would have been it. You know, it was a deadly snake.'
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