Dick Van Dyke Offers a Post-Crash Update

Actor, 97, tells paparazzi he's fine but 'sore all over' after March 15 accident in Malibu
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 27, 2023 7:40 AM CDT
Van Dyke Jokes: Crash 'Made Me a Little Dumber'
Dick Van Dyke attends the Kennedy Center Honors at the Kennedy Center on May 21, 2021, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

A spoonful of sugar may be helping the medicine go down after all, because Dick Van Dyke seems to be doing A-OK after his California car accident earlier this month. "[I'm] pretty good—I'm sore all over," the 97-year-old actor, known for classic '60s films such as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as well as The Dick Van Dyke Show, said Friday in a new video, per the New York Post. "The airbags did not deploy, so I just did a face-plant right in the steering wheel ... [and] it just made me a little dumber."

In the clip, the actor also shows off his injuries from the March 15 crash in Malibu, pointing out two stitches in his chin. The accident happened during rainy weather, which led to slippery conditions. TMZ notes that in October, the star had been overheard commenting on the drought in his state at that time. "Is it ever going to rain?" he said then. Van Dyke had been involved in a more serious accident in 2013—one in which his Jaguar burst into flames after he noticed smoke coming from its hood. He was pulled to safety with no injuries.

Police don't believe drugs or alcohol were involved in this more recent accident, but they've requested that Van Dyke retake his driving test with the state DMV. Experts tell MarketWatch that the accident shines a spotlight on the question of when older drivers might want to pack it in, either due to physical and cognitive challenges or meds that might affect one's driving. Despite his injuries, Van Dyke is trying to look at the bright side of things, in a sense. "I'm 97—all my friends are dead," he told the paparazzi. (More Dick van Dyke stories.)

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