Top Gear presenter critical in hospital

[faceless]

TV presenter critical after crash
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is in a critical condition in hospital after a crash in a jet-powered car while filming for the programme. The presenter, 36, was taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary which has a special neurological unit. A North Yorkshire Ambulance Service spokesman said he was unconscious when they got to the scene and a hospital spokesman described him as "critical". The BBC confirmed the presenter had been injured during a Top Gear shoot.

Inspector Mike Thompson, of North Yorkshire Police, said officers were dealing with the incident at Elvington airfield, a former RAF base, in North Yorkshire. He said: "At 5.45pm this evening we received a report via the fire service of a male person trapped in what was described as an overturned jet car which had been driven on the airfield. The male occupant has received serious injuries and has been airlifted to hospital at Leeds."

The presenter was born in Birmingham, educated in Yorkshire and lives near Cheltenham. In addition to presenting Top Gear for the BBC, he also fronted Brainiac on Sky One until recently.

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This is a bit of a shock, hopefully he'll be ok... apparently he was doing 280 mph when the crash happened... serious stuff.

[vegas]

He was severely injured in a car crash while filming for Top Gear on September 20, 2006 at the former RAF Elvington airfield near York. He was driving a rocket powered dragster capable of travelling at 280mph in an attempt to break the land speed record for England

I always thought it was a matter of time before someone was injured on this show considering the risks they take

[eefanincan]

Sure hope he's ok. I love the banter they have on this program and it wouldn't be the same without him. Wonder if this will affect the stunts they do from here on in?

[HandoGod]

Been moved from intensive care, and managed to speak to James May today.

[IRiSHMaFIA]

Shattered ... Hammond's crumpled dragster after 300mph crash


'Richard is winning his fight'

By JEREMY CLARKSON
SEPTEMBER 23, 2006

IN the wee small hours of Thursday night, just 30 hours after what is almost certainly the world?s fastest ever car crash, Richard Hammond suddenly sat up in bed, opened his eyes and asked what had happened.

?You?ve been in a car accident,? I said. ?Was I driving like a tw*t?? he asked, before getting out of bed and walking, shakily, to the lavatory.

His wife, Mindy, couldn?t believe her eyes. None of us could. It really did seem that he?d had a look through death?s door and decided he didn?t like what he saw on the other side.

Later, he looked across at James May and said: ?Hello C**k face.?

Despite all the odds, it seemed we?d got our Hamster back . . .

Two years ago, Richard Hammond, James May and I agreed on a plan of action should one of us be killed while making our show, Top Gear.

We decided that after the announcement of the death was made in the following week?s show, the next word should be ?anyway?.

So if the Hamster had ever careered through the Pearly Gates in a flaming 200mph fireball, I would put on a sombre face, say that Richard Hammond had died and then, after a small pause, say: ?Anyway, the new Jag . . .?

It was a sort of joke. But then this week, it sort of wasn?t.

The idea to drive a jet car actually came from Hammond. He skedaddled into the office one day and, bubbling with his trademark enthusiasm, said: ?Hey, why don?t we go somewhere and drive really fast? I don?t mean supercar fast. I mean REALLY fast.?

We all liked the idea. But what we liked even more was the idea of James May being given the assignment.

James is known to his fans as Captain Slow. He thinks dawdling is reckless and practises the art of what he calls ?Christian Motoring?. Mostly, this involves letting people out of side turnings and generally being Edwardian.

Putting him, and that ?70s barnet, in a 370mph jet car was a bit like putting just Jane Austen at the helm of a space shuttle.

Immediately, James discovered a prior engagement and said he couldn?t go. I, meanwhile, decided that I spent most of my thirties upside down in jet fighters and helicopter gunships, vomiting, and that these days I was far too fat.

That left Hammond, who was bouncing around like the donkey in Shrek shouting, ?Pick me. Pick me?.

And so we did.

Today, people who have absolutely no idea at all of how television works, (Yes, columnist Neil Lyndon ? that?s you, you sanctimonious, rent-a-soundbite little t**d) are saying that our producers push us to do more and more dangerous stunts in a bid for ratings.

Rubbish. Our producers spend their whole lives filling in health and safety forms and asking ?are you sure??

It?s the presenters who come up with the hare-brained ideas and trans-continental races . . . not the backroom boys or the suits.

The car Hammond was set to drive is called the Vampire. It?s powered by a Rolls- Royce Orpheus jet engine ? as used by the Red Arrows ? and currently holds the British land speed record of 300.3mph.

I know one bloke who has driven it and he said simply: ?It was brilliant. Although I did fill my pants.?

So, the day before his fateful encounter, I shook Hammond?s hand and said ?goodbye?.

?I?ll probably be killed,? he joked with a huge, beaming smile. ?Anyway . . .?

He knew that he was embarking on a dangerous mission. And this is what no one seems to understand. He was looking forward to it. He likes the buzz.

He also knew that in Top Gear?s 28-year history, no one on the show has ever been hurt. Not even Ray Mears can claim that. Or Anthea Turner or even Janet Ellis.

Right now no one knows for sure what caused the accident. Film footage seems to point the finger of blame at a tyre. And that?s something you can?t prepare for.

The tyres were from a Nascar racer in America, chosen specifically because they have super-stiff side walls. But it does seem that one of them burst.

How fast was Richard going? Well on the run before, he?d reached 315mph. So it?s likely he?d hit that speed again. Richard isn?t the sort of man who goes backwards. If he thought he?d done 315, he?d be trying to do 317. Or 320. Or five million if he?d thought there was half a chance.

People with beards and dirty fingernails are now saying he should never have been in that car, doing that kind of speed. They make out it?s all terribly complicated and that you need years of practice.

Rubbish. From what I understand, you sit there, you push a lever to light the afterburner and you then push another to shut off the fuel supply ? it runs on heating oil ? and deploy the parachutes. A hamster could do it. In fact, a hamster did.

Of course, behind the scenes, there was a small army of people making sure all went well. The Vampire team had even brought along a device to measure wind speed. Nothing that could be left to chance had been left to chance. But chance itself was still sitting there, waiting to bite. As the car began its series of sickening rolls, at a speed that boggles the mind, Richard?s head was taking a ferocious pounding as his helmet smashed into the protective steel cage.

That was bad, but inside his body things were worse. He will have been subjected to maybe 100g. This means his brain will have weighed 71 stone. And it was rolling around inside his head at 300 revs per minute.

He landed upside-down, with his helmet, full of soil, buried in the earth. Amazingly, he was alive. And more than that, after a few minutes of unconsciousness, he was lucid.

?I want to do a piece to camera?, he told the crew. He even fought the ambulancemen, who said he couldn?t. No surprises there. Richard likes fighting. He does it a lot.

When I first heard of the crash, I was doing a rather miserable 175mph in an Aston Martin at our test track in Surrey. Everyone was quite upbeat. He didn?t appear to be badly hurt. So I carried on driving round corners a little too quickly while shouting. I even went out for dinner with friends that night.

But later it became apparent that Richard was much more seriously injured than we?d thought. Doctors described his condition as critical.

At the hospital, his wife Mindy was being a star. She?s one of those women who takes things in her stride but this was something else. She was laughing. She was joking.

She?d told daughters Willow and Izzy that Daddy had crashed another car and messed up his clothes. So she was taking him some clean ones. Richard had a bad night. At four he was giving very serious cause for concern but as the sun rose, he?d rallied a bit.

He didn?t look very ?rallied? to me. In fact, he looked like a Klingon, with a massively swollen eye and a huge lump on his forehead. The only good news, so far as I could see, was that his teeth were still as shiny and bright as ever.

It?s genuinely hard to know how Mindy could be so upbeat when her husband was so badly dented. They?d just exchanged contracts on a new house. They were about to take out a joint mortgage. And yet, she was still cheerful. James May and I weren?t. May even admits to having been ?a bit unmanly? at one point.

There?s one thing though. All we ever hear about the NHS is that it?s rubbish. But anyone who ever experiences the emergency care it provides always notices just how un-rubbish it is in reality.

Leeds General Infirmary is a no star hospital. According to the bureaucrats, it?s terrible. But trust me on this. From where Richard Hammond was lying, it was about as terrible as Angelina Jolie?s left breast.

They were coping brilliantly with a forest of flowers being sent by well wishers. ?They?re lovely,? said Mindy, and then, after a pause . . . ?Do you think anyone will send cash donations?? Outside, in the real world, one internet site had raised ?4,000 for the air ambulance that had saved Richard?s life. Sky News was deluged with thousands of goodwill messages. The Sun received messages from all over the world.

And there was some hope. While James was leaning over, whispering to our bashed-up friend, Mindy started to stroke his hair and I noticed the hamster?s heart rate had shot up from 60 to 75 beats per minute.

?Christ, James. He thinks you?re doing the stroking,? I yelled.

Quickly, the heart beat settled down again. Then came the moment when I said: ?The reason you?re here mate is because you?re a c**p driver.?

And he smiled.

I knew then that he was going to pull through. And God it was a relief.

You can never tell after a brain injury what long-term implications there might be. He might have no sense of taste, or double vision. His teeth may go brown. Or he may be absolutely fine.

The only thing I knew was this: he was going to live.

And the next day after he said, ?Hello C**kface? to James May, it looked like he might just win back everything else as well.

You?d think that the joyous news would silence the vultures circling the crash site since the accident, rejoicing in the fact that Top Gear had finally been taught its lesson that speed kills.

Somehow I doubt it though. The campaign to have us taken off the air ? sparked curiously, by the BBC?s own news website ? will now be ramped up, fuelled by the environmentalists and spearheaded by muddle-headed road safety campaigners.

Richard is winning his fight. And now mine begins. To make sure that he has a show to come back to.

[eefanincan]

Thanks for the update, Irish. Sounds like he's doing much better..... should make for an interesting episode when the time comes to air it.

[faceless]

'MY NOSE AND EARS WERE FULL OF EARTH ..I WAS INHALING A FIELD'

click HERE to read this exclusive article where Hammond describes the accident and his recovery...

[eefanincan]

Thanks for the update, Face. Just last night my husband and I were watching Top Gear and wondering how he was doing.

[faceless]

Hamster horror crash WILL be shown on TV
02/12/06
TELLY bosses are to show the horrific 300mph crash that left Top Gear host Richard Hammond fighting for his life. Car-crazy Richard suffered brain injuries and spent weeks in hospital after the dragster smash earlier this year. But now the star has given producers the go-ahead to show the terrifying footage on the box. Richard, 36, gave the thumbs-up after watching the film himself for the first time. It will be shown in January in a new Top Gear series.

A source said: ?It?s taken him a while but he?s finally seen the footage. He put it off for a bit until things started to get back to normal. But now he?s had a look at it he doesn?t think there?s a problem. No one wanted to make a decision without Richard of course ? it?s all down to him.?

Richard?s high-speed crash happened during filming for the hit BBC2 show at Elvington Air Field, near York, in September. He was driving a jet-powered Vampire dragster when it veered off the track and flipped several times. Doctors originally feared he would suffer permanent damage, but the star made an amazing recovery.

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I was quite surprised when I read this, but I think it's a good idea to show it.

[IRiSHMaFIA]

I think it's a good idea to show it as well. It should be truly fascinating to see.

From the pictures I've seen, it really is a miracle he recovered the way he did.

[eefanincan]

I agree with you both.... no problem in showing it. It will certainly be interesting to see. I can believe it took him awhile to get up the nerve to look at it. Quite frankly, it's a wonder he's even driving again.

[faceless]

Hammond rides again

Richard Hammond has ridden a bike for the first time since the 288mph jetcar crash that almost killed him – and MCN was there with him all the way. Just days after doctors gave the all-clear to ride again, MCN columnist Hammond fired up a bike and headed out onto the streets of London near to do something he feared he may never do again.

As he lifted off his Arai just seconds after shutting off the engine, an ecstatic and beaming Hammond said: “It felt like a fantastic connection straight back to a time when I hadn’t suffered a brain injury and life was a lot simpler. “That’s why I ride a bike. I can come out of a TV studio or the big meeting doing grown up stuff but the moment I get on a bike I’m exactly the same person I was 15 or 20 years ago. I just can’t believe how good that was. Even though I haven’t been on a bike since before my accident, it’s a bit of a grim wet day and I feel really out of practice it just makes perfect sense.

“That ride, the quick wobbly ride with me looking like a nobber just made me realise why I love bikes and just what I started riding for all those years ago. Every ride I have ever done, all those rides in the pissing rain on a 50 back when I was 16, the commutes on a GSX-R750, chugging around on my Harley, stringing loads of miles together on my BMW R1150GS – they all make sense and came back to me in a split second. I’m finding it fairly hard to work out how I feel because just getting back on a bike has been incredible. It’s not like I had forgotten how to ride but I did have to really think about what I was doing. It still felt perfectly natural just my naturally cautious riding temperament has perhaps gone up a notch or two.”

You can see a full length feature of Hamster’s return on a bike in this week’s issue of MCN out Thursday, December 28, 2006.

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[eefanincan]

I'm really amazed that he went back to it at all. Good for him! It should prove to be an interesting season of Top Gear.

[6ULDV8]

Good for him....

It's a bit ballsy so soon after all the problems he's had... but realy the best thing to do.
The longer you leave this kind of stuff the harder it becomes to do.

"the quick wobbly ride with me looking like a nobber" Fantastic quote

[Bob]

superb stuff...good to see he recovered properly