Jeremy Vine, 58, cheats death after freak accident on Penny Farthing

Jeremy Vine, 58, says he cheated death after his freak accident falling over the handlebars of his 6ft-tall Penny Farthing

• Jeremy Vine says he is ‘lucky to be alive’ after the horror accident near his home
• The 58-year-old presenter was left unconscious after fall from the antique bike

Jeremy Vine has opened up after surviving a horror accident – when he nearly fell to his death from nine-feet up while on his Penny Farthing  and landed on his head.

The 58-year-old broadcaster now says he is lucky to be alive after he rode the antique-style bicycle over some grass and hit a divot.

He was knocked out and the said he feels very lucky to not be in a wheelchair after the ‘Olympics-style’ fall.

Despite wearing a helmet, he says cannot remember any of the incident. 

Speaking on the How To Be 60 podcast, he said: ‘I had a near-death experience a year ago where I fell off, I mean it is ridiculous, I fell off a Penny Farthing.

Jeremy Vine says he is lucky to be alive after he rode the antique-style bicycle over some grass and hit a divot

The fall left the 58-year-old knocked out despite wearing a helmet and he cannot remember any of the incident 

He said he feels very lucky to not be in a wheelchair after the ‘Olympics-style’ fall

READ MORE: Jeremy Vine takes his Penny Farthing out for a ride less than a week after he flipped over the handle bars

‘I had been learning to ride a Penny Farthing. It’s brilliant because everybody laughs and stares – it’s great.

‘However, the one thing nobody said to me is if it stops suddenly, you are only going one place. You are going over the handlebars – that’s it. And your head is nearly nine feet up.’

The keen cyclist stopped suddenly after cycling over grass – flipping him over the front of the bike.

He added: ‘I was knocked out, but the person who saw it said it was like something from the Olympics.

‘He said at one point, “You were a star shape and upside down mid-air”.

‘So I hit the ground, I was wearing a helmet but that’s kind of irrelevant.

‘All the air was knocked out of me. I was knocked out.

‘And I couldn’t remember any of it.’

Vine admitted that riding the bike was part of an urge to ‘show off’ both he and his comedian brother Tim Vine both have. Pictured: Chiswick High Road in December 2021 during a demonstration attended by Jeremy Vine

Vine, who hosts his own BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme, said: ‘Amazingly, I went to A&E, and they did every kind of test – X-Rays, MRIs.

‘And yeah, I was right as rain.’

He added: ‘I thought okay, you only have that amount of luck once.

‘Because that really could have ended up with me using a wheelchair for the rest of my life or only communicating by blinking.’

Vine admitted that riding the bike was part of an urge to ‘show off’ both he and his comedian brother Tim Vine both have.

He spent a month learning how to ride one – and was back on the wacky ride just six days after the accident.

Shortly after his fall he presented a tongue-and-cheek debate on his Channel 5 show titled: ‘Should Jeremy give up cycling?’ 

Vine described himself as being in an ‘out group’ as a cyclist and said: ‘I am in a group that’s smaller than the people who aren’t in the group.

Shortly after his fall he presented a tongue-and-cheek debate on his Channel 5 show titled: ‘Should Jeremy give up cycling?’ 

‘I’m not going to hide on my bike, I’m not going to pretend I’m not cycling.

‘All I am trying to do, is bloody well get to work without dying.’

He said he gets triggered speaking about cycling, adding: ‘Is it too much to ask, that I can actually ride to work without being injured, hurt, killed, turned left across, shouted at.

‘A neighbour said ‘I think all cyclists should wear number plates’.

‘And I am just straight away like ‘Okay, let’s do this guys. 1,700 people a year die because they are hit by cars. Three people a year die because they are hit by bicycles. More people a year die because they are stung by bees. You want to put number plates on bees?’

The presenter said his wife, Rachel Schofield, has asked him to never speak to anyone on their street about cycling or she will divorce him but it ‘always goes wrong’.

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