Richard Hammond critically injured on shoot for Top Gear

[leeglf]

Top Gear's James May says he is convinced his fellow presenter Richard Hammond is "perfectly intact" after a conversation at his hospital bedside.

more good news

all the signs are looking good for us seeing everyones favourite "hamster" back on tv in the near future

[Clunk]

good stuff, if he does recover fully and goes back to work, i wonder if he will let them show the accident?...although, ill bet sky have already bought it for a pay per view.

[chuckskull]

Seeing as no-one died, the accident should be ok to show. They showed him crashing that minivan last series.

[MadduckUK]

the minivan crash was hilarious tho. this is rather different.

[chuckskull]

I presume he'll have the final say on whether it's shown or not.

[Rave]

I actually hope it is the end of Top Gear, for reasons I've documented previously. However I watched with contempt and eventual disgust as the ITV news turned the story into a blame proportioning exercise, compared it to the death of a guy on the Late Late Breakfast Show, and then asked if BBC producers should be brought to account.

FFS, no sane person thinks driving a jet car at 300mph is going to be 100% safe. Hammond himself has often admitted to being an adrenaline junkie. I daresay that statistically, in this country, driving a jet car is safer than riding a motorcycle on the roads, which Hammond wrote a column about for MCN every week.

....and so, although I think his column was boring, and Top Gear was crap, I think he's a great presenter and he comes across as a genuinely nice guy, so I sincerely wish him all the very best for a full recovery- not least because he has a young family.

Which is another moral debate for thrill seekers, but I won't crap this thread with it.

[jon bda]

Blah Blah

Thanks for the happy input (as usual) mate, can't you find a newbie to moan at in the welcome section or something?.

[dave87]

Thanks for the happy input (as usual) mate, can't you find a newbie to moan at in the welcome section or something?.

Harsh Jon,

Though I agree with you

Rave, I've stood up for you in the past, but I totally disagree. I think Top Gear is exactly what we need in the increasingly sanitized existance of ours. With the government seeking to be ever more politically correct & the prevalence of spin, Top Gear is an unusual reality check available weekly in quite manageable 1hr chunks.

Long Live Top Gear

Oh - and the total is up to £65k if you include Gift Aid now

[MonkeyBum]

I think Top Gear is exactly what we need in the increasingly sanitized existance of ours. With the government seeking to be ever more politically correct & the prevalence of spin, Top Gear is an unusual reality check available weekly in quite manageable 1hr chunks.

Totally agree with you there, nicely put

[charleski]

I watched with contempt and eventual disgust as the ITV news turned the story into a blame proportioning exercise

I couldn't agree more, it was the same on Chan4 news.
'Was Hammond 'qualified' to drive the car?' What, they're handing out licences for jet-cars now?

As far as the rest - well I don't drive and have no love for cars, but I still watch Top Gear every time it's on simply because it's such a great show.

[chuckskull]

People do stupid things whether there on TV or not. As for qualifications, I'm pretty sure Hammond would have at a least a basic racing license.

The HSE and event organisers obviously thought he was suitable.

[MonkeyBum]

Hammond has a racing license coz i remember JC taking the mick when hammond took part in a citreon 2cv race.

[charleski]

Hammond has a racing license

Yeah, that was my point, but I should have been clearer. The guy knows how to drive a car, and no-one gives out 'qualifications' for going over 300mph.

On another note, reports that he's had a conversation are really good news, as is the fact that he was conscious when pulled from the crash. It indicates that the safety measures prevented any rotational injury (which is the real killer) and the lack of any talk of operating hopefully means they've ruled out any haematomas.

[chuckskull]

He's walking again.

Excellent news.

[Funkstar]

Good stuff.

One of the guys here in Norway was asking if i had heard about this. TopGear is pretty popular over here (although from what i've seen it isn't as good because it is edited heavily to fit in the time slot and they are usually old episodes so the news stuff isn't there). A lot of the guys also like Brainiaks on Discovery

[Howard]

the minivan crash was hilarious tho. this is rather different.

Are we talking about when he rolled that little Bedford van after trying to powerslide it? That won't have hurt, unlike this jet crash.


And I was so glad to hear about his condition improving... He'll be back on TG in no time I hope