EXCLUSIVE: 'RHOC' Star Kelly Dodd Recalls 'Scary' ATV Accident: 'I Had a Guardian Angel There'

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“I had a guardian angel there.”

That’s how Real Housewives of Orange County star Kelly Dodd describes the scary day she and co-stars Tamra Judge, Vicki Gunvalson and Heather Dubrow were involved in a major ATV accident in Glamis, California, back in April. Tamra and Vicki were reportedly airlifted from the scene.

“It was scary,” Kelly tells ET. “It was actually, like, 'We could've died. I could've been a paraplegic.’ So many things could've went wrong. Even though I felt safe.”

Kelly says she had full trust in Tamra, who was driving the dune buggy that day and has been four-wheeling around the Glamis dunes for years.


WATCH: Vicki Gunvalson Shares Post-Accident Recovery Photo

“Tamra's been doing Glamis since she was a kid,” Kelly shares. “I felt 100 percent comfortable. We had a bunch of teams around, you know, safety teams. So, we're in the car. She's going back and forth, just warming up. But also, like, having fun … I felt safe.”

Kelly was a little uncomfortable, though, admitting that the small vehicle and tight helmet she had to wear made her feel claustrophobic. She decided to loosen her helmet to get some relief.
“I'm kinda checking the helmet to see if it's going to come off,” she recalls, shaking her head to demonstrate.

“I'm like, this s**t's not gonna come off,” Kelly says. “I'm loosening it up. And then all of a sudden, we go down this bowl … and then Tamra goes, 'I'm getting scared.’”


WATCH: RHOC Season 11 Trailer Teases Frightening ATV Accident

According to Kelly, other dune buggies started to whiz by the four-wheeler Tamra was driving, causing the vehicle to shake.

“There's no track, there's no direction,” Kelly explains. “It's a free-for-all. So, what you're really scared of -- you're not even thinking about rolling -- you're thinking about somebody's gonna run into you … they’re going so fast you think you’re gonna have a head-on collision.”

Kelly says Tamra decided to follow another driver’s tracks in the sand, but one of their wheels got caught and their ATV flipped over, landing upside down. Kelly remembers parts of the roof falling onto the women, scraping Heather’s forehead and knocking Tamra unconscious. Kelly says Vicki suffered severe whiplash from the accident.


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“I was all bruised,” Kelly says. “I was hurt. My head, for whatever reason, my husband says I'm hard-headed, so apparently I am, because Vicki knocked her head into me twice. I had cuts and bruises and things like that, but nothing compared to the other women.”

See how the scene unfolds and its aftermath Monday night at 9 p.m. ET when The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo. Vicki previously opened up to ET about the accident. Hear what she had to say in the video below.