Top Gear - Richard Hammond critically injured

[Rushby Hinds]

BBC motoring presenter injured in crash
Thursday Sep 21 06:43 AEST
AP - The host of a BBC television show about automobiles was critically injured when the jet-powered car he was test driving at about 450 kph crashed, the network said.

The accident occurred when Richard Hammond, 36, the host of Top Gear, was racing the car down a runway at an unused Royal Air Force air field near York city in northern England and it overturned, police and the BBC said.

Hammond, who often drives high-performance cars for the show, was rushed in an air ambulance to a hospital in Leeds.




The accident occurred while he was filming for a future show.

Once again, i'm not happy. Best show on TV, the little Borat's LOVE this show and will be cut up. Again.

[Rushby Hinds]

TV presenter critical after crash

The presenter is being treated at Leeds General Infirmary
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is critically ill in hospital after a crash in a jet-powered car while filming for the programme.
The 36-year-old presenter was taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary's 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 Top Gear shoot was at the former RAF airfield in Elvington, Yorkshire.


Inspector Mike Thompson, of North Yorkshire Police, 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."

Former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson said the presenter was "irreplaceable".

He said: "He is a wonderful, unique and distinctive Top Gear presenter.


The scene at the former RAF airfield where the crash happened

"He has brought an awful lot to the programme and his indefatigable energy, the fact that he tries absolutely anything once, may have been the reason that he has overstepped the mark a bit.

"He has turned Top Gear into a gang show with Jeremy and James and the three of them have wowed audiences all over the world and he is an international personality."

Mr Willson added: "There is no pressure from the BBC or the producer to take undue risks.

"But that pressure is in your own head. You want to do an item on the programme which is mindblowing.

"You want to do a fantastic item that blows everybody away."

The presenter was born in Birmingham, educated in Yorkshire and lives near Cheltenham with his wife and children.

In addition to presenting Top Gear for the BBC, he also fronted Brainiac on Sky One until recently.

[Booney]

Yes, I agree Borat,one of,if not the best show on free to air TV,FOXTEL subscribers may be bored of it,but the likes of Borat and myself getting by on peasant TV like it,so BTW does the two junior Boon's.

[Rushby Hinds]

Top Gear presenter tells of near death
Tuesday October 24, 2006
Upside down and breathing a field full of dirt, Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was close to death.

Speaking for the first time since suffering a serious brain injury when he overturned a jet car in a high-speed crash last month, Hammond said he felt lucky to be alive.

"I was upside down inhaling a field," Hammond told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper, in which he also writes a motoring column.

"My nose and eyes were full of earth. I'd gone ploughing on my head."




Hammond was filming for the popular BBC television motoring series when the jet-powered dragster, travelling at 288mph (463.5kph), spun off the runway at Elvington airfield, York, on September 20.

"My very last thought was, `Oh bugger, that's gone wrong. Well, we're checking out now. You've had it,'" Hammond said.

"I was aware of my brain saying, `We'll wave the flag,' and that was the point I passed out.

"Doctors use a point system. Fifteen is normal, three is a flatline. I was a three. I was that close to being dead."

The 36-year-old spent time in intensive care and is expected to make a full recovery.

He is recuperating in the care of wife Mindy, 35, and daughters Izzy, six, and Willow, three.

The only obvious signs of his ordeal are a bloodshot left eye and a chipped tooth, leading him to joke that he had no scars to show off at the pub.

"There are people who fall off their trikes at the age of four who've got better injuries than me," he said.

"I've been through hell and I've got nothing to show for it except a chipped tooth!"

But Hammond, who suffered short-term memory loss known as traumatic amnesia, also revealed a more serious side to his injuries.

He suffered excruciating pain and struggled to make sense of what had happened after he was reduced to a child-like state when he emerged from his coma.

"My mind was like an office that had been utterly ransacked," he said.

"It was a total mess and I couldn't find my way around any more.

"It was utterly terrifying - the scariest thing that's ever happened to me."

The BBC has not confirmed the return of Top Gear to television screens.

The Daily Mirror said Hammond was aware the show was in the spotlight as an investigation into the crash takes place.

"On Top Gear we live in a world where we have to deal with an element of risk," Hammond said.

"It's our job to minimise it.

"The very fact that I made it is testimony to the fact that the precautions we ordinarily take are worth taking. I'm living proof that safety works."