'Oh bugger that's gone wrong' - Top Gear's Hammond on the crash that nearly killed him

 

Last updated at 09:40am on 23rd October 2006

Richard Hammond has spoken for the first time about the high-speed crash

 

 

 

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond today told of the moment he nearly died after crashing a jet powered car at 288 mph.

The 36-year-old father of two, who is making a good recovery following last month’s accident, said he felt his life slip away seconds before he went into a coma.

He said: "I was upside down inhaling a field. My nose and eyes were full of earth."

"I'd gone ploughing on my head. My very last thought was, 'Oh bugger, that’s gone wrong. Well we’re checking out now. You’ve had it'."

He told the Daily Mirror: "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 flatline. I was a three. I was that close to being dead."

Hammond spoke as it also emerged that following the crash, which the BBC has said it will show on a special edition of Top Gear, Hammond has signed a golden handcuffs deal worth a reported £2 million.

A BBC spokesman said last night: "Richard Hammond has signed an exclusive two-year deal with the BBC."

"We are delighted."

Hammond sustained a serious brain injury after his Vampire dragster flipped over at Elvington airfield near York.

The stunt was part of an attempt to break the British land speed record for the BBC show.

Hammond was on his final run of the day when the crash happened.

He continued: "I was in a bad way when they came to get me."

The air ambulance guys were amazed I was still breathing.

"Next thing I know is I was coming to in hospital. As far as I’m aware, I got into a car in York and woke up in Leeds."

The presenter, who is now being cared for at a private clinic in Bristol, said he was hoping to return home in the next few days.

He added: "At first they said I’d be in hospital for 15 months. Yet here I am ready to go back home after five weeks. I’m so bloody lucky I can’t believe it."

But Hammond also recalled his mind being a 'total mess' after he emerged from a coma at Leeds General Infirmary.

The presenter suffered serious short-term memory loss.

He said: "My mind was like an office that had been totally ransacked."

All the filing cabinets were knocked over. It was a total mess.

"It was utterly terrifying - the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. It made me panic, It made me desperate. Basically I was mad as a bag of snakes."

Surgeons considered drilling a 'bore hole' into Hammond’s head to drain the blood from his brain but in the end the operation was not necessary.

Despite the horrific crash, the presenter has emerged remarkably unscathed.

His left eye, however, was badly bruised, which Hammond referred to as looking like a 'Klingon eye, all lumpy and full of fluid.'

He also admits he became obsessed with Lego and the card game Top Trumps, which he used to aid his recovery.

He said Lego 'saved my life' and that Top Trumps was "good for using my brain again."

Hammond praised his wife, Mindy, and said seeing his daughters Izzy, six, and three-year-old Willow had kept him going.

Paying tribute to his 35-year-old wife, he said: "She's just tough, she’s resilient and creative."

He said she had dealt with inquiries from concerned friends and relatives "without a wobble" and described her as "incredible."

Top Trumps and Lego :stunned:

Top Trumps and Lego :stunned:

 

Presumably the "racing car" version of Top Trumps........................... ;)

Presumably the "racing car" version of Top Trumps........................... ;)

 

 

Nah the "supercar" version of Top Trumps.

 

Glad he is getting better though, October Sunday Nights are not the same with no Top Gear on.

300mph crash that nearly killed Richard Hammond was 'caused by nail in a tyre'

 

Last updated at 15:03pm on 14th September 2007 Comments

The high-speed crash which nearly killed Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was likely caused by a nail in the tyre which safety experts failed to spot, an official BBC report revealed today.

There was a "distinct possibility" that a check of the tyres between earlier practice runs could have identified the danger.

The report concluded an "inability to spot the damage to the tyre" was the underlying cause of the accident.

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The high-speed crash which nearly killed Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was likely caused by a nail in the tyre which safety experts failed to spot

 

The crash occurred in September last year while Hammond was driving a Vampire, a jet-powered modified drag racer at Elvington airfield, near York

 

Hammond suffered serious head injuries in the crash at Elvington airfield, near York, last September.

He was on his fourth run and driving at speeds of nearly 300mph when the front offside tyre suffered a "catastrophic disintegration".

A penetrating object such as a nail, probably picked up during the course of the day's events, punctured the side wall of the tyre.

The BBC's 88-page report said Primetime Landspeed Engineering (PLE), the company which supplied the jet-powered Vampire drag racer, had sole responsibility for the car's safety.

But it criticised the Top Gear team for having no "assurance system" to ensure PLE's safety checks had been carried out properly.

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Hammond was on his fourth run and driving at speeds of nearly 300mph when the front offside tyre suffered a 'catastrophic disintegration'

 

The report said of the crash: "The indirect cause was the inability to spot the damage to the tyre, possibly due to either the lack of an adequate checking procedure or inadequate implementation of the procedure by PLE as the 'experts' with sole responsibility for the safety of the car; and to a much lesser extent Top Gear not having an assurance system to ensure that the safety checks were being performed on the day."

There was inconclusive evidence on whether the safety checks were conducted "to an appropriate standard".

The report went on: "It is the provisional opinion of the tyre expert, pending further information from PLE, that a detailed examination of each tyre immediately following each run is likely to have revealed the area of weakness on the front off side tyre.

"It is also a distinct possibility that examination of the tyres between earlier runs should/could have identified the presence of the penetrating object which the tyre expert believes led to the failure of the tyre.

"The Top Gear team...did not have anyone with sufficient knowledge to assess the adequacy of the checks made by PLE on the day of the shoot."

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Richard being taken to hospital by helicopter after the crash

 

It added: "Where the the BBC relies on 'experts' (people with specific knowledge/skills) with prime responsibility for safety issues for high risk activities there is a need to ensure the BBC has selected competent persons and that it provides an appropriate level of assurance that these responsibilities are being discharged adequately."

The report praised Top Gear's production team for areas of good practice, including a decision to drop the original idea of attempting a land speed record because it put Hammond at greater risk.

A report by the Health and Safety Executive in June identified failings in the BBC's safety management systems.

Hammond smashed land speed record just before near-fatal crash

 

by PAUL REVOIR - More by this author » Last updated at 00:08am on 15th September 2007 Comments (1)

TV presenter Richard Hammond broke the British land-speed record shortly before his near fatal 288 mph crash, it emerged last night. As it was revealed that a single nail was responsible for the horrific accident, a BBC report has claimed that, on the penultimate run before the smash, Hammond touched speeds of 314mph in September last year.

This is well in excess of the previous high of 300.3mph - set by Colin Farrows at the same airfield in Elvington, North Yorkshire, with the same jet powered drag racing car in July 2000.

Hammond, who made a miraculous recovery and has returned to presenting, cheated death when his car span off the track and flip over several times.

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The high-speed crash which nearly killed Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was likely caused by a nail in the tyre which safety experts failed to spot

 

The crash occurred in September last year while Hammond was driving a Vampire, a jet-powered modified drag racer at Elvington airfield, near York

 

But the BBC report criticises producers of the show for failing to spot the potential damage to the tyre of the jet powered Vampire drag racer in between runs.

It claims there was a "distinct possibility" that a simple check between practice runs could have alerted them to the danger and concluded that an "inability to spot the damage to the tyre" was the cause of the crash.

It was also revealed that it was only the result of a scheduling clash that had stopped fellow Top Gear presenter James May from being the driver in the high-octane stunt.

When the crash happened, the BBC was criticised for chasing ratings with dangerous daredevil stunts on the hit BBC2 show, which also stars Jeremy Clarkson.

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Hammond was on his fourth run and driving at speeds of nearly 300mph when the front offside tyre suffered a 'catastrophic disintegration'

 

Hammond suffered life-threatening head injuries when the front offside tyre was hit with a "catastrophic disintegration". He has since returned to work and has continued to risk his life.

Only last week it was revealed that Hammond was involved in another crash - when he was shunted off the track at the Silverstone racing circuit in Northamptonshire while driving a Bugatti Veyron at speeds of more than 100mph.

The report said the TV presenter had previously "expressed his desire to go 'really fast', faster than 'super car fast'". It was claimed that he had credentials to do the stunt as he had spent two days with Renault Formula 1 driver training.

At lunch time on the day of the crash, afterburners were added to the car and, on the sixth run, Mr Hammond delayed deploying the parachute brakes until he hit the record breaking speed of 314mph.

Despite producers knowing how fast the car had gone they still let an "elated" Mr Hammond do a final run, so they could get more pictures of the afterburner, which then saw the dramatic crash.

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Richard being taken to hospital by helicopter after the crash

 

The presenter was not told of the speeds he was going in the stunt and had no speedometer in the car, so as the programme could record his "reaction and surprise".

The show's producer Andy Wilman told investigators he had been aware that a novice driver had got the car to 260mph and that he was happy for Mr Hammond to hit speeds of 260mph to 270mph.

Authors of the probe criticised the fact that the Top Gear team did not have an expert on hand to make sure that the checks made by Primetime Land Speed Engineering, which supplied the car, were adequate.

PLE came under criticism in the report for their safety checks amid claims it had not given enough information before or at the time of the shoot about what safety checks they followed top ensure the car was safe before each run.

The report said: "It is the provisional opinion of the tyre expert, pending further information from PLE, that a detailed examination of each tyre immediately following each run is likely to have revealed the area of weakness on the front off side tyre.

"It is also a distinct possibility that examination of the tyres between earlier runs should/could have identified the presence of the penetrating object which the tyre expert believes led to the failure of the tyre."

"The Top Gear team...did not have anyone with sufficient knowledge to assess the adequacy of the checks by PLE on the day of the shoot."

As a result of the Top Gear crash the corporation has introduced plans for new procedures aimed at improving risk management on its shows.

A Health and Safety Executive report in June found failings in the BBC's handling of safety issues but stopped short of saying anyone should be prosecuted over the crash.

Only last week it was revealed that Hammond was involved in another crash - when he was shunted off the track at the Silverstone racing circuit in Northamptonshire while driving a Bugatti Veyron at speeds of more than 100mph.

 

Didn't hear about that accident, I heard he was racing an Eurofighter in a Veyron and came off the track in a 24 hours race when driving a BMW :p