Stunt Driver Jumps Bonds DBS into Italian Lake

Mr Dunn, who is an Aston Martin engineer and not a stuntman, suffered only minor injuries and was able to kick his way out of the car and swim to the surface when the £134,000 Aston Martin DBS when it skidded off the road and plunged into the icy waters at high speed.

Today Mr Dunn, who is from Leamington Spa, was in hospital at Arco near Trento in northern Italy and said, “I’m doing very well considering what happened but I was very, very lucky.

“I do feel lucky to be alive because I was knocked out by the force of the impact and when I came to the car was at the bottom of the lake - I have been told it was 150ft down.

“The whole thing was a bit James Bond like - I just kicked out of the car and swam to the surface - my lungs felt as if they were going to explode and my chest still hurts now.

“Apart from a few bruises I am fine and I hope to be out of hospital within a day or so. It’s actually very embarrassing and I’d like to try and forget the whole thing.”

The accident happened in the early hours of the morning at Torbole on the edge of picturesque Lake Garda where filming for the new Bond film Quantum of Solace is taking place.

Mr Dunn added: “I have been out here for a month filming and working with cars. I’m an engineer with Aston Martin and not a stuntman - although I feel like one now.

“I have had a lot of support from the production team and I’m very grateful to them although as I said I’d like to put it behind me.

“I have been with Aston Martin for five years and I have never bent one until now. I can’t believe I’m alive. I was very lucky.
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“All I remember was that the road was wet and I wasn’t going that fast but the next thing I knew I came off and I ended up in the water.

“I can’t have been going that fast as another engineer was following me in a Fiat Punto. The next thing I remember is swimming up to the surface and the rescue people being there. How I managed to get out I will never know.”

The car - one of five on the set - had been due to be used for a scene when Bond, aka Daniel Craig, roars away from a fireball crash - and a truck ends up in the water.

Quantum of Solace’s opening sequence follows on five minutes after the end of Craig’s first Bond film, the gritty Casino Royal.

A rescue crane and a team of divers was called into salvage the car but it is a complete write off with its roof caved in and windows all smashed.

Today it was under a tarpaulin at a wrecker’s yard and was expected to be moved later this week to Aston Martin’s Italian office at Padova.

[Source: Telegraph.co.uk]