“I could have been brain damaged”: Dean Gaffney tells Daybreak of his relief at surviving accident

“I could have been brain damaged”: Dean Gaffney tells Daybreak of his relief at surviving accident

Showing a big scar on his forehead, Dean talked to Daybreak hosts Aled Jones and Lorraine Kelly about his recent accident .

And he confessed he wasn’t wearing his seat belt: “I'm very lucky. You hit the nail on the head there about the seatbelt,” he said. “I know I'm a naughty boy and it takes something like this â€" I always learn the hard way in my life.”

Dean’s accident happened at the end of January when he was on his way home from a theatre production in Derby. He lost control of his Mini and crashed into the central reservation.

Dean chats to Lorraine and Aled

 

He told Daybreak he couldn’t explain why he didn’t put his belt on: “It was just, I can’t even answer that question, it was just 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 and then drove on my merry way and 20 minutes later this happened.

“There’s so many different things that could have happened that made me not walk away from it to be honest,” he continued.

Dean's scar is healing, but he was lucky to have escaped with his sight

 

“I was trapped inside. It reads worse than it actually was. I mean the fact that I didn’t have the seatbelt on. The NHS really looked after me and I want to say thank you to those guys â€" and they said that had I been wearing a seatbelt I probably would have just got whiplash and I would have walked away with none of this.

“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. So there’s so many things that could have gone wrong and the fact that I'm able to walk away and obviously you’ve got this campaign with the seatbelt thing, it’s so important â€" I can’t stress that enough.”

Dean explains what could have happened

 

Dean, who said he is healing well and is off the painkillers now, also said he’d been blown away by all the messages of good will from fellow EastEnders actors and fans.

“I'm very lucky,” he said as he swore he would never drive without his seat belt again: “Never, on my life I promise.”