Comedian Rowan Atkinson has had a narrow escape from the Grim Reaper (i.e. might nearly possibly have been killed, but probably not), after crashing his high powered Aston Martin V8 Zagato.  The incident occurred at a weekend race meeting with the Aston Martin Owners Club.  The car left the track and hit a barrier.

"I believe his brakes had failed or did not work and he went off the track and hit a barrier," said Steve Cooper, financial director of Croft Racing Circuit near Darlington, northeastern England.  Just minutes before the incident representatives from the Reliant Robin (a car frequently mocked by Atkinson) Owners Club we seen tampering the his brakes.  We were later informed that no members of the Reliant Robin Owners Club were seen anywhere near the car and that we made it up (a fact that in retrospect we now realise that we were already largely aware of).  However, in a Funny.co.uk exclusive we can reveal that we have suspicions that some of the Reliant owners club may or may not have wished ill events on the Mr. Bean star, and may have plotted in the future to use a Mr. Bean doll in some kind of voodoo spell, possibly involving a Scalextric track, or pins, these things often involve pins.

A spokeswoman for Atkinson's agents said the star raced quite a lot and was fine after yesterday's crash.