It was a close call for Jerry Seinfeld! The comedian cheated death when he says the brakes failed in his vintage Fiat and his car flipped over.
The scary accident happened as Seinfeld was driving up to a busy intersection in the exclusive community of East Hampton on Long Island. INSIDE EDITION's Diane McInerney was on the scene.
Seinfeld told police his brakes failed on this road, and that is when he pulled the emergency brake, but that failed too, so Seinfeld made a split second decision to cut the wheel hard to the right. That move sent the car rolling over and stopping just before hitting heavy traffic on Montauk Highway. Now police are saying his quick thinking probably saved him from disaster.
"I thought he should be recognized for how well he handled this. The fact that he had the wherewithal to pull an emergency brake coming into an intersection with heavy traffic at the time, it was phenomenal," said Chief of the East Hampton Police Todd Sarris.
Police say the frightening accident left the comedian shaken.
"Once he came back from the accident scene he was obviously very shaken but he was very calm, very cool, he answered our questions, and he helped us with the investigation," continued Chief Sarris.
Miraculously, Seinfeld walked away without a scratch. His wife Jessica and their three kids were not in the car at the time. The accident was chalked up to mechanical failure and no summonses were issued.
According to the police report obtained by INSIDE EDITION, the car Seinfeld was driving was a vintage 1967 Fiat worth around $20,000.
There is no word on whether the age of the car had anything to do with the accident, but the comedian is an avid collector of classic cars. He reportedly keeps as many as 47 Porsches parked in a luxury garage on Manhattan's Upper West Side, making him one of the world's largest collectors of the German sports car.
In a statement, Seinfeld, ever the comedian, made light of his brush with death:
"Because I know there are kids out there, I want to make sure they all know that driving without braking is not something I recommend, unless you have professional clown training or a comedy background, as I do. It is not something I plan to make a habit of."
Police told us they believe that Jerry Seinfeld had just acquired the car, and the chief said the comedian's actions were so heroic he deserves to be formally recognized.