'I'm very lucky. You hit the nail on the head there about the seat belt, I know I'm a naughty boy and it takes something like this – I always learn the hard way in my life.'
Ex EastEnders star Dean Gaffney is lucky to be alive following his horrifying car accident. Dean, 34, has spoken out for the first time since his 4-day hospitalisation last month. His lucky escape involved minor injuries which could have been much worse.
Appearing on Daybreak with a huge scar above his left eye, Dean admitted as he spoke to Lorraine Kelly and Aled Jones that he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and branded himself ‘a naughty boy’.
'I'm very lucky. You hit the nail on the head there about the seat belt, I know I'm a naughty boy and it takes something like this – I always learn the hard way in my life.'
The actor, who now stars in touring stage productions, told the ITV breakfast show: 'It could have been a lot worse. One inch down and I would have been blind, and one inch up I would have been brain damaged.’
The former soap star - who played Robbie in EastEnders - explained the crash, saying: ‘I was pulling out the theatre I was working in on a play, an Agatha Christie play, and I was pulling out of the theatre and I was reversing and then I just completely forgot (to wear a seatbelt) and then drove on on my merry way and 20 minutes later this happened.’
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Trapped inside his vehicle after the crash, Dean waited as the paramedics tried to get him out. He said: 'I was trapped inside. It reads worse than it actually was…they said that had I been wearing a seat belt I probably would have just got whiplash and I would have walked away with none of this.'
In spite of his accident, Dean is keen to get back on the road and continue touring: 'I'm going back to A Murder Is Announced tomorrow, which is in Stevenage.’
‘I’ll be fine. And then I'm going on to do Let’s Dance for Comic Relief, so I’ve been quite busy this month, which is nice.’