Ben Fogle has revealed that he “nearly died” after almost being hit by delivery van while on a dog walk near his home.
The television presenter issued a lengthy statement about the incident on Instagram, sharing that he lives in a rural village outside Henley, Oxfordshire, where pedestrians are forced to walk on a single track road as there are no pavements.
While out on the road with his dog, Fogle said that a delivery van “careered around one of the many blind bends, threw on its brakes and skidded to a halt just a few feet from me and my dog”.
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Fogle explained that the driver was was “driving at the perfectly legal, but obviously dangerous 60mph”, before calling for the public’s assistance in urging the council to reduce the speed limit to 20mph.
“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,” he recalled.
“And now I imagine my children walking along the same pavement, sorry, road. 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.”
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He continued: “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.
“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.”
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