‘I heard a bang and my arm was in my lap,’ says British Paralympic hero as he reveals freak accident that changed his life

DANNY CRATES’ life changed when he heard a bang and his arm was in his lap.

And it turned him from a semi-pro rugby hopeful and engineer into a British Paralympic hero, TV star and business guru who swam with sharks.

8

8

The then 21-year-old from Essex rode his last job along the east coast of Australia in 1994 before returning to Sydney to fly home after a year Down Under.

But when he collided with the truck of a 76-year-old local farmer, the bulldozer blade protruding from the rear of the vehicle tore through Crates’ car and virtually tore off his right arm.

The car ended up on an embankment 15 feet away and luckily the only household within earshot heard the crash and rushed to help.

Crates, 51, told the Stripping Off podcast: “I was with my boss. We don’t really know what happened.

“There was just a bang.

“There was an arm on my lap. I panicked a little. He said, ‘Don’t look down, it’s yours.’

“Almost (completely severed), tendons holding it together.

“So I got out of the passenger side of the car and took the arm with me. I took the arm with me, and luckily there was one house on the road and they heard it.

“She pretty much just wrestled me to the ground and sat on top of me because I was running around like a headless chicken until the emergency services came.

“At that time. You don’t know how bad things are. You just know it hurts.”

Crates was immediately taken to the hospital, where he underwent four hours of surgery and had his right arm amputated just below the shoulder.

Within 36 hours of receiving the call, his parents had flown to his bedside.

He spent three days in intensive care and another three days after that he convinced doctors to let him leave the hospital before lunch.

Another four days later he completed the remaining 60 km of that harrowing journey with his parents.

Despite losing half his blood, Crates did not require a blood transfusion, meaning he needed four weeks of recovery before he was healthy and strong enough to fly to England.

And it was then that the reality of the new path for his life dawned on him.

DIVE TO NEW DEPTH

Crates was an engineer by profession who still had ambitions of a semi-professional rugby career.

A year after the accident, he managed to play for his club in their annual anniversary match – and continued to play able-bodied rugby until a few years ago, when he finally hung up his boots at the age of 49.

But another passion took center stage for a while before he launched his athletics career.

Crates had learned to dive during his year in Australia and returned to Oz a few years after the fateful collision to learn to become an instructor – which in turn led to jobs in Spain and with sharks closer to home.

He added: “I couldn’t just get a job.

“Diving was the coolest thing that could happen on earth. I fell in love with it. The male instructors received a lot of attention from the females on the boat.

“I went back to Australia, trained as a diving instructor and worked there for nine months.

“I was a good diver and a lot of it took place in the classroom or in the pool, but I had to be very good at explaining things because I couldn’t do things with my right hand.

“There were no gray areas when it came to getting someone back on a boat or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation underwater; it was success or failure. I passed.

“I came back to the UK and realized it’s a lot colder here and the River Thames isn’t as exciting as the Great Barrier Reef.

“So I was a shark show diver at the Sea-Life Center, going to the shark tank four times a week and swimming with the twenty sharks. It was a lot of fun.”

PARALYMPIC POWER

Crates also worked as a diving instructor in Spain, but then concentrated on athletics, where his arm amputation allowed him to run without prosthetics.

He trained alongside four-time Olympian Donna Fraser and earned a spot at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney.

However, Crates admitted that he ‘full’ the 400m T46 final by going out too slowly and ultimately finished third.

But inspired to go two better than his bronze, the Essex star moved up to the 800m – initially to increase his strength and endurance in the 400m before settling for the two-lap distance.

And it turned out to be the right choice when he won a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games.

Four years later, Crates carried the flag at the 2008 Beijing Opening Ceremony, but was forced to withdraw from the Games due to injury and retire the following year – as world champion, Olympic gold medalist and world record holder.

He explained: “I trained completely non-disabled, and the reason I did that, and I train with all the Olympians.

“I didn’t want them to see me just as a Paralympian. I wanted them to see me as an athlete, first and foremost.

“I was a lot faster than most runners in the 800 meters, so my sprint finish was stronger than theirs. That was my superpower. The sprint finish.

“I went to Athens expecting to win the gold medal.

“I don’t think I was always the fastest, but I was very tactically aware, so I could always sense what was happening in the race. I could feel it.

“It’s a long way straight home because you can feel them. You can hear them, you can almost smell them. It was more relief than joy.

“In 2006 I finally won my world title, it took me nine years to win.

“I broke the world record in 2004, before the Athens Games, and was ranked number one in the world.”

PREPARING A NEW CAREER

Crates wanted to move from the track to the studio and after his athletics career he moved into the media, where he reported on the 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 Paralympic Games as a co-commentator and expert.

But his media work spread much further with a BBC food program and even a radio programme.

In 2015 he returned to TV screens in the tenth series of Celebrity Masterchef, alongside Chesney Hawkes, Rylan Clarke and winner Kimberly Wyatt.

Crates said, “I’ve done several little things, but to really take it on and make it your job was something I wanted to do.

“I like cooking. I can cook, but I can’t create.

“I tried to chop everything up, and then they just said, ‘Dan, there are machines and tools that can do that for you.’ But I tried to do it with one hand.

“I went to Master Chef and said, ‘Well, at least I have one arm, so I’m not cutting myself with a knife.’ And I succeeded!

“I cut myself with a razor-sharp peeler!”

Crates – who is now a father – has also launched his own company, bringing together keynote speeches, event hosting, leadership consulting and coaching for companies.

He treats every speech ‘like a race’ to try to do better and continually improve, while the inner competitiveness is still strong.

Reflecting on how his life has gone since the accident 30 years ago, he said: “The practical aspects of an arm amputation aren’t the worst thing in the world, are they? There are worse things that could happen.

“Would I like two arms again? Yes, it would make life a lot easier.

‘But would I change what happened to me? No, because what happened to me defined me as a person and guided me on the path. I know I’ve been down and I’ve had a really good life since my accident.

“The only thing I would change or do differently is if I had travel insurance, because I would still have one arm, but just have a few more euros in my pocket.”

8

8

8

8

8

8