Richard Hammond, one of the presenters on BBC’s Top Gear, crashed in a jet powered dragster while trying to break the British land speed record of 300.3mph. He had reached 300mph on his first go, and was doing a final run when, “one of the parachutes had deployed but it went on to the grass and spun over and over before coming to a rest about 100 yards from us.”
Sky news updated their news story about the accident a few minutes ago. Richard Hammond suffered a “significant brain injury” but they’re hopeful he will make a good recovery. Watching them do crazy things on Top Gear from time to time it’s easy to forget that they’re actually taking risks. Unfortunately this time something went wrong.
Hope you recover soon Richard!
Much later.. News is getting better.
Clarkson revealed he had made Hammond smile during the visit by calling him “a crap driver”.
He told The Sun: “He was lying peacefully with a black eye but didn’t react so I tried something else.
“I said, ‘The reason you’re here is because you’re a crap driver’. He then smiled at me. It was an amazing moment, very moving.”
Later.. I just watched the final episode of the last series of Top Gear. That’s the one with the white vans. In a final race against Stig in a police car, Richard tipped over the small van he was driving when he tried to take a corner too fast. The van skidded a few feet before coming to a stop and he climbed out safely. I wonder did what Jeremy and James say come back to haunt them when they joked, “Richard might be dead. If you want a job in Top Gear send your application to I’m better than Richard Hammond..”
The Wikipedia page on Richard Hammond has a summary of events including the good news,
In the early hours of 22 September, Hammond took his first steps, just 30 hours after the crash, according to Jeremy Clarkson, and was moved to a general ward on 23 September.
Jeremy Clarkson responds in his usual way, making fun of and light of what happened. I don’t doubt that they did as much as they could to make his land speed attempt safe but reading Jeremy’s quote below, one has to wonder how many children does it take to force a man to consider his fate? Obviously not two, maybe three? No, probably four children.
I have too many children these days to put myself voluntarily in harm’s way. Hammond, however, isn’t there yet.
Top Gear is a great show but when Jeremy Clarkson’s flippant attitude strays towards serious matters it really irks me. Thank God, Richard Hammond is well on his way to recovery.
TCAL has photos taken from Sky News of the crash. Looks bad. Lucky man to walk away from that!
They had said all was well yesterday, the doctors say it might be brain injury today. Can only hope the Hamster comes out of this well. There’s a donation page to the helicopter rescue service, it’s doing quite well right now.
Is BBC’s Tog Gear something similar to their show Top Gear? 😉 Sounds more like something to so with swimwear!
Oops! I mean…to do with swimwear!
Yes, it’s their new programme. Jeremy Clarkson wears a speedo and models the latest in swimwear from around the world. Hasn’t built up much of a following among fans of Top Gear though.
Thanks, fixed the typo! 🙂
Some typical Clarkson humor over at thesun.co.uk
They are delaying the Best of Episode, thats all the change so far. Atleast its looking good in terms of Richards recovery.
i hope richard gets beter and glad he is ok i am a massive fan of top gear and would be crushed if it cdame of the tv.
Claire dunn,
You simple, cake eating, merry fool. You are a measly two years late! Way to come out of the cave every now and again.