ACCIDENT-prone comedian Rowan Atkinson has cheated death again after the latest in a series of high-speed car crashes.

The ex-Durham Chorister School pupil, a self-confessed motor racing fan, crashed his £100,000 Aston Martin at a racetrack in Leicestershire at the weekend.

Mr Atkinson, who studied for an electrical engineering degree at Newcastle University, came a cropper when his V8 Zagato spun off during an owners' club race at Mallory Park. He tried to rejoin the race, but was hit by another car on his front nearside.

The Mr Bean actor, famous for his rubber-faced features, escaped injury, but was shaken-up and his prized car was badly damaged.

It is the second near disaster the publicity-shy star of current box office hit Johnny English has had in the sports car.

In July 2001, he walked away uninjured from a first lap smash at the Croft Race Circuit, Darlington.

He had to be checked out by a doctor after the accident, on what has since become known as Atkinson Corner.

The 48-year-old, who first found fame in the 1980s comedy series Not The Nine O'Clock News, also had a crash in his £650,000 McLaren F1 supercar on the M6 in October 1999.

He had bought the car to celebrate the international success of his film Bean, and again he walked away without a scratch.

Perhaps his most terrifying ordeal came not on the racetrack, but in the air while on holiday with his family in Kenya. Mr Atkinson was flying from Mombassa to Nairobi in March 2001 when the pilot of the twin-propelled Cessna he was in passed out at 16,000ft.

The unflappable actor grabbed the controls of the plane as it lurched violently until the pilot regained consciousness and was able to land safely.