Bedingfield Injured in Crash
Daniel Bedingfield, who has topped the U.K. charts and enjoyed cross-over success in the States with his debut album Gotta Get Thru This, suffered head and neck injuries in a car accident in New Zealand on Friday.
Bedingfield was en route to a music festival when his Jeep rolled over; rescue workers had to cut him out of the vehicle. He was taken to a hospital in Wellington, where he’s listed in stable condition.
Though he is expected to make a full recovery, Bedingfield, 24, won’t be able to leave New Zealand, where he was born (he was raised and resides in London) for two to three months.
The accident will delay work on Bedingfield’s second album, which he’s been writing, though in a statement he said he was just grateful to have survived the crash. “I’ve seen pictures of the car and feel blessed to have got out of there at all,” he said. “I’m also very glad that nobody else was hurt, especially my friend who was in the passenger seat. Having an accident like this really puts things into perspective so I’m not going to rush the process of getting better but will just take my time.”
The club-friendly Gotta Get Thru This has been a huge success in England, where it has sold more than 1.5 million copies yielded multiple chart-topping singles and spent more than a year in the Top Twenty. Though the record hasn’t had quite the same impact in the U.S., the record was a fixture on the charts through much of 2003, quietly topping 500,000 copies sold.