BBC Countryfile presenter recalls horror forklift accident at 14: ‘I remember thinking I’m going to die’-Josie Copson-Entertainment – Metro

Sammi Kinghorn had a horror accident in 2010 (Picture: Instagram/Sammi Kinghorn)

Countryfile presenter Sammi Kinghorn has spoken about the terrifying accident that changed the course of her life.

During her childhood, Sammi enjoyed regularly helping out on her family’s rural farm in the Scottish borders and following her dad Neil as he completed jobs on the land.

On December 2, 2010, aged 14, she was playing on the farm with a friend, when they noticed Neil in a forklift.

While they were jumping around, Neil was ‘beeping his horn and laughing’, and this is when she decided to climb onto the machinery.

‘To this day, I have no idea why I did it,’ she told OK!

Neil was completely unaware that she’d climbed inside, and so lowered the forklift bucket, which he’d been using to shovel snow – on top of her.

Sammi began presenting on Countryfile last year (Picture: Instagram/Sammi Kinghorn)

She initially thought her dad, who’d always warned her about the dangers of farm life, was aware of her presence, and joking with her, but it became clear that this wasn’t the case.

‘I started screaming. I felt my back popping and before I knew it my head was in my crotch. I was crushed right down into a tiny ball,’ she recalled.

‘My heart was thumping in my chest. Everything felt really slow and all I could hear was my breath. I remember closing my eyes and thinking, “You’re going to die, and your Dad’s going to think it’s his fault”.’

Sammi is now a wheelchair racer (Picture: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

After falling on a pile of compacted snow, her legs pulsed and twitched and that was the final time she felt them.

Scared of her dad feeling like he was to blame, or losing his farmer job, she didn’t tell the truth of how the incident occurred. However, when doctors said it was impossible to sustain her injuries by just slipping, she confessed.

Neil said the horror accident ‘blew our life to pieces’.

Sammi was given an MBE last year (Picture: Instagram/Sammi Kinghorn)

Sammi was paralysed from the waist down and spent months in hospital relearning basic skills after emergency surgery, but she immediately became pragmatic about her future.

The 28-year-old is now a Scottish World Champion wheelchair racer, a double paralympic medalist, a 5X world medalist and a 1500m World record holder, which is proudly written on her Instagram bio. She became the fastest-ever British female wheelchair racer over 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m distances.

‘I’ll never be able to take away the guilt that my dad feels because he is my father and although it’s not his fault, he’s always going to feel guilty but when I do my job now and I travel the world, I compete in stadiums with thousands and thousands of people and I do well, and most importantly I love it, I know that it makes him feel that little bit better,’ she told Farmers’ Guide.

Last year, she began presenting on the BBC show Countryfile and has also appeared on The One Show.

Speaking about her job, Sammi said: ‘Being able to travel the world and speak to people that are passionate about the countryside, I love that.’

Countryfile next airs this Sunday on BBC One at 5:30pm

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