'I was 3mm from death' says Darius after breaking his neck in Spanish car crash

Published on Sunday 22 August 2010 17:41

Popstar To Opera Star winner Darius Campbell has revealed he was just three millimetres from death after a crash in which he broke his neck.

The singer - who first found fame on TV's Popstars then Pop Idol - declared: "I feel like the luckiest man alive."

Speaking about the accident for the first time, he tells the new edition of Hello! magazine he turned down an operation because he feared it may damage his voice.

Glasgow-born Campbell - formerly known as Darius Danesh - said his "trauma compression injury" was similar to that suffered by Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who was paralysed after a horse riding accident.

The 30-year-old stage star, who is still in a neck brace, was a passenger in a Porsche when it hit a wall at 70mph after skidding on oil during a break in Spain.

The impact caused one of his vertebrae to crack down the middle. He was told by a nurse: "Three millimetres this way, you no walk; three millimetres that way, you dead."

Campbell added: "It was like how you'd talk to a baby, but I knew what she was trying to say - I was the luckiest man alive."

He said the accident happened on a "lads' driving holiday" as they drove on a motorway in searing heat.