Details emerge of how Richard Hammond escaped "biggest car crash" Clarkson has ever seen
"I genuinely thought he was dead”
Richard Hammond has taken to social media to reassure fans of his health following another terrifying car crash.
The Grand Tour presenter narrowly avoided death this past weekend after crashing a supercar in a new stunt while in Switzerland. Hammond was behind the wheel of a 220mph Rimac Concept One electric car, driving on the Bergrennen Hemberg race course where he lost control of the vehicle.
The vehicle proceeded to flip off the road before rolling down a 100ft hill in an an event Jeremy Clarkson described as “the biggest crash he had ever seen”
An Amazon spokeswoman said that Hammond had been “involved in a serious crash”, adding “Richard was conscious and talking, and climbed out of the car himself before the vehicle burst into flames,” she said. “The cause of the crash is unknown and is being investigated.”
The show’s producer Andy Wilman told the Sunday Mirror:
“When they saw the wreckage on fire they thought Richard was dead. It was really bad. If Richard had been a few seconds slower getting out, he would have been incinerated. They were staggered he had got out of it alive, because there was just nothing left.”
An eyewitness said: “He crashed into the speed limit sign and off the road into the field below. He went down the hill about five or six metres. I had been filming further down the road.
“The man next to me shouted it was a crash and ran. I ran too and looked down into the field. I could see bits of the car on the road and on the grass. I would have been there about 20 seconds after the crash. The car was already burning. I saw fire. It was at the front. The car had done a 180-degree turn.
“I was looking at the car. It all happened so fast. I saw the driver getting out of the car. The door was open. In fact, I don’t think the door was even there. That’s the reason he could get out so fast... There was a spectator who helped him. He supported him. He helped him get away from the car.”
Now, in a new post to motor focused social media site Drive Tribe, Hammond reassured us he was in (relatively) good health, coming away with ‘only’ a broken leg.
The video, taken from Hammond’s bed, serves as a “my bad” to his friends, family and fans, before showing off X-rays of his injury.
"Yes, it's true: I binned it. Again," says the The Grand Tour presenter. "I'd like to say thank you as well to James May, who smuggled a bottle of gin in for me last night... I shouldn't have said that out loud," he went on.
"Most importantly, sorry to my wife Mindy and my daughters Issy and Willow. I'm sorry for being such a colossal [The Idiot Brain book held up to camera]."
Hammond’s Grand Tour co-presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May also took to DriveTribe to give their account of the terrifying crash.
Writing in a blogpost, Clarkson said “I don’t know what went wrong. Hopefully, when he comes out of surgery and is feeling up to it, he will be able to tell us. What I do know is that I genuinely thought he was dead.”
The incident is the second large car crash Richard Hammond has suffered while filming. In 2006, he crashed at 288mph driving a rocket car for Top Gear.
We wish the Hamster all the best for a full recovery.
