NEW YORK - Director Quentin Tarantino is expressing sorrow for the car crash that injured Uma Thurman during shooting of “Kill Bill,” calling it the biggest regret of his life. He is also being criticized for 2003 remarks seeming to defend Roman Polanski.

Tarantino tells Deadline he had test-driven the route himself and believed it to be safe. His remarks come days after Thurman recounted the on-set accident in an interview with the New York Times.

Meanwhile, Tarantino is also facing heat for remarks in a 2003 interview in which he seemingly defended Polanksi and said the 13-year-old girl he had sex with “wanted to have it” and was “down to party” with the director.

Polanski has been a fugitive since 1978 while awaiting sentencing for unlawful sex with a minor in 1975.