Describing the tragic incident, the former Top Gear main host and current Grand Tour host said: “I saw the car explode. Yes, it did explode. And I thought Hammond was still in it." Clarkson then added that it was a "fucking serious accident".
Clarkson says his "knees were as weak as jelly" when he realized that Hammond's electric Rimac supercar had swept off the road at 193 km/h, causing the car to burst into flames.
Clarkson was one of the first members of the Grand Tour team to arrive at the scene of the accident. The presenter saw the supercar on fire, lying on the roof, and thought that the "body" was pulled out of the remains of the car.
“I really thought he was dead. And now I feel this state - cold. Legs buckle as if knees have turned to jelly. It was Hammond who crashed."
Luckily, Richard Hammond only injured his knee in the accident, and lying in a hospital bed joked that he would now have a “Swiss Army knee.”
Hammond thanked the doctors who came to his aid immediately after the accident. And after joking last night that James May should be given special thanks for carrying the gin to the hospital, Hammond apologized to his wife and two daughters.
Clarkson, Hammond and May filmed the sequence on a mountain road in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Clarkson drove a high-performance Lamborghini Aventador S, Hammond drove a Rimac Concept One (it's an electric supercar capable of 354 km/h, according to the Croatian company). James May was driving a Honda NSX.
According to Jeremy Clarkson, before the incident, Hammond drove the Rimac for four days "on highways, at airfields and on blocked mountain roads." He also completed several races with climbs along the mountain track.
Recalling what happened immediately after the accident, Clarkson wrote: “I saw smoke. Fearing that such a “going off the track” could have very serious consequences, I urged the driver to get to the top of the hill as quickly as possible.
“I was there about 30 seconds later and I jumped out of the car and saw a raging fiery inferno about a quarter of a mile away from us at the bottom of a hill.”
“It was clear from the tire tracks what had happened. At the last corner, he suddenly lost control after the finish line and fell down the slope onto the road that goes below, plus his car turned over.
“The main question was whether he could get out of it. Nobody knew this."
Clarkson then revealed that it was not clear which supercar had crashed. It was first reported that it was a Lamborghini Aventador driven by a Lamborghini test driver.
“... while I was standing there and waiting for information, it suddenly dawned on me that it was not a yellow car that was on fire. Aventador yellow. And the white car was on fire. Hammond's Rimac was white. And now I feel this state - cold. Legs buckle as if knees have turned to jelly. It was Hammond who crashed,” Clarkson said.
James May thought Hammond was still in the car. "There's Hammond," shouted James, says Clarkson.
Firefighters then confirmed that Hammond managed to get out of the car before it caught fire.
Hammond almost died in 2006 when a tire on a jet car he was driving exploded at a speed of 463 km / h.
A person who can cause not only admiration, but also a smile of tenderness. The favorite of the public and colleagues on the set. A scorcher, an auto mechanic and just a guy who is able to think deeply and convey his conclusions to society. It is unlikely that modern television could exist without this frame - after all, few people already represent Top Gear without the most charming presenter on BBC 2.
Little Ritchie from Birmingham
Richard Hammond was born on a not-so-frosty winter day in the late 1960s (namely, December 19, 1969) in a large British family, becoming the next son of a young couple - Alan and Ailey. This happy event took place in Birmingham, the Kingdom of Great Britain. In addition to the boy, the couple also had two sons - Nicholas and Andrew.
As a true Briton, Richard Hammond, whose age is now known to all his fans, grew up as a restrained and conservative boy - he didn’t break his knees, didn’t get into trouble, but on the contrary - he was inquisitive and discovered something new in the world of science and technology.
When the guy turned 16, the family decided to leave their hometown and move to the small market town of Ripon, which is located in Yorkshire. For a while, young Richie attended grammar school, but after that, the craving for technology still prevailed, and he entered the College of Art and Technology. There, the guy struck up a close friendship with one of the academicians (Jonathan Baldwin). Among other things, Hammond also mastered photography courses.
Lucky Star Artist
The path to universal recognition for Richie turned out to be difficult and very thorny. The young hero began his stellar career as a radio host. This work was easy for him, so he had to combine work at several stations at the same time. So, he was remembered by the listeners of Radio Newcastle, Lancashire, Cumbria, Cleveland and York.
The beginning of the 2000s was very successful for Hammond. Firstly, he entered into a legal marriage with his beloved woman (over time, his wife bore him two daughters). Well, and secondly, the hero was finally able to break through to the TV screens of American residents.
As they say, if the finest hour has come, then you just need to grab luck by the tail and take everything you need from the opportunities provided. And so it happened. Richard Hammond got into Top Gear shortly after he came as the host of thematic programs on the Mens and Motors channel. It was 2002.
But ... not without falling
Thanks to his participation as a key character in the legendary show, Richard Hammond (whose participation was eagerly awaited weekly by not only every self-respecting American, but also by every other inhabitant of this planet) nevertheless achieved that very vaunted popularity and universal recognition. So several years passed - issue after issue, plot after plot, a curious story after a dangerous one, and vice versa. Our hero got the funny nickname "hamster" and constantly justified it in practice - he would eat a cardboard box, or even use up a tube of whitening toothpaste in one sitting. He became a favorite not only of the public, but also of his faithful comrades on the site.
In September 2006, Richard tested the legendary Vampire in an attempt to break the world record. Testing took place at the former Royal Air Force Circuit. It just so happened that Hammond lost control and became a member of a terrible disaster. At that time, no one could give guarantees - whether the presenter would survive. But contrary to fate, Richie nevertheless got out and showed his snow-white smile after a tube of pasta again.
Life outside the scenes
Undoubtedly, he was created for the set - Richard Hammond (films with which you are unlikely to see, because he is a showman to the bone), a favorite of women, teenagers and the most ordinary motorists. Together with his wife and two daughters (Willow and Isabella), he lives in a decent house on the outskirts of Payford (Gloucestershire, which is located near Cheltenham).
Outside of filming, the famous TV presenter is a wonderful amateur farmer who keeps a small paddock of chickens and sheep. In addition, the Hammond family managed to acquire several dogs and even horses. In general, Richie is a wonderful husband and father, off the screen he lives a calm and measured life.
Richard Hammond: scientific nonsense
By the time the public was already accustomed to the host's various tricks and even got a little tired of them, the hero's outrageous ideas were not long in coming. Richard Hammond presented to the world his new development - an expensive bicycle, which was based on the model of the legendary car - Ferrari. He called his brainchild very intricately - Fahrradi Farfall FFX.
As the developer himself stated, the discovery will not drive at the speed of its prototype and will not imitate the roar of a motor, for example. But, in return for all this, the bike exactly repeats the shape of the car, and besides, it costs fabulous money - several times more expensive than the original version.
In general, as you already understood, you still have to pedal. The invention weighs about a centner, which indicates its uncomplicated filling, but at the same time the original box, like for a bicycle. "Engineering ideas" with Richard Hammond never cease to amaze - this man, perhaps, will still show himself in the world of science.
Ritchie on modern discoveries
The developer of the outrageous velomobile himself has a very positive attitude towards various kinds of novelties of science and technology, related in any way to the modest world of the motorist. Richie enjoys satellite navigation, delayed engine warm-up and many other nice little things that are designed to make our lives more comfortable.
But Hammond has an unfulfilled dream. As he himself admits, he would very much like to develop (well, or wait for the moment when some other researcher does it) such a system that will allow motorists to be warned of an impending danger: whether it be a truck rushing around a bend or wild animals running across road after a few hundred meters.
The showman does not deny: perhaps someone will not like this idea, but still he does not want to stop believing in his bright dream.
Motorists - who are they to Richie?
Probably, the host of the program "Top Gear" should respect what he represents. That is how it is. Despite the fact that Richard Hammond is a notorious biker who prefers to go to the track at a dashing speed and each time risk his own life for the next dose of adrenaline, he still respects motorists - from young to old. For him, this category of people is like a separate nation, with its own laws, law enforcement officers and even violators - well, where without them?
In one of the programs, by the way, the presenter complained about truckers. As he himself stated, with all due respect to them (and it seems to him that this feeling is mutual), sometimes it happens that representatives of this profession often consider themselves the most right on the road. This opinion often arises due to their habit of blocking the track, ostensibly for the safety of everyone moving behind. Here is an interesting observation from our hero. Richie himself is indignant about this, although he respects the truckers very much - after all, they often give him a place so that he slips on his bike.
A couple of lessons about life values from the star of "Top Gear"
Every fan of this legendary show probably knows that Richard Hammond is not only an excellent tester, mechanic and racer, but also a storehouse of folk wisdom. In his words, you can often hear a deep subtext about our life values and that each of us worries somewhere in the soul.
I wonder what our hero would say, being next to us now or having the opportunity to give some parting words for the coming day, so to speak? Perhaps now we would have heard from him something like: do not give up what you love, under any circumstances in life, and if you have set any goal for yourself, then please, do not turn off on the way to your dream, because by betraying it, you, first of all, are cheating on yourself.
Celebrities have been plagued by life-threatening accidents this past weekend! In addition to the name of Jennifer Lawrence, who almost became a victim of a plane crash, on June 10, the Western criminal report contains the name of the former host of the popular TV show about cars Top Gear, Richard Hammond, who almost lost his life in a car accident.
car accident in swiss alps
A terrible accident happened to 47-year-old English TV presenter Richard Hammond last Saturday in Switzerland during the filming of the next episode of The Grand Tour, in which he starred with Jeremy Clarkson and James May.
Hammond, driving a £2 million white electric car, lost control at 120 mph and veered off the road onto the side of the road. The car rolled over and caught fire.
According to eyewitnesses, in front of whom the incident occurred, they were sure that the artist had died, when suddenly the figure of the victim himself appeared from the glow of the fire, who managed to crawl out from under the car on his own before the fire.
It is noteworthy that a crowd of onlookers immediately appeared at the scene of the accident, whom Hammond personally drove away from the flaming vehicle in a state of shock.
Photos from the scene of the accident
Rumors of death
Before the doctors had time to take Richard by helicopter to the hospital of St. Gallen, where after the examination it turned out that he had a broken knee, mournful information about his death appeared in the press and the network. To stop speculation on this subject, on Sunday, Hammond posted on his Twitter photos of himself from the hospital room.
In the post, the showman thanked the doctors for the “new knee”, and his colleague James May for the magic bottle of gin that helped him recover.
Hammond also apologized to his wife Amanda and daughters Isabella and Willow for the fact that, albeit not intentionally, he scared them a lot.
Richard Hammond apologizes to family, saying he's an 'idiot'
Richard Hammond with his family last month
English TV presenter R. Hammond was born on December 19, 1969 (Birmingham). Having received the appropriate education, having gained the necessary experience, the showman began to try himself on television. When he first met Richard, Jeremy Clarkson said that he really likes this guy. In adulthood, the presenter Richard Hammond began to lead the projects The Grand Tour, Helicopter Heroes, Sport Relief, Total Wipeout, Sport Relief 2010, Scientific Nonsense, publish news in publications (the magazine The Daily Mirror can be distinguished).
Who is Richard Hammond
Thanks to the special character, the showman was able to quickly start working on television. The host's friends note that he looks like an American, because he loves steaks, muscle cars, cowboy hats, long evenings by the fire with friends. To numerous jokes of colleagues at work, the TV presenter always answered that he had never used Botox, hair dye, did not resort to a tooth whitening procedure to maintain an attractive appearance.
Biography
The showman's father owned a notary's office, so the Hammond family can be safely considered wealthy. Richard from an early age was distinguished by restraint and conservatism. As a rule, the boy was not attracted to fights, some troubles. The guy was inquisitive, every day he discovered something new. When the boy was 7 years old, he began to attend a comprehensive school. Subsequently, Richard became a student of the Ripon Grammar School. He was interested in science, so at the age of 16 he became a student at the College of Art and Technology.
Personal life
In 2002, Amanda Etheridge became the showman's wife. Today he has two charming daughters, lives in Herdfordshire, has his own castle (the time of its construction is the 18th century). The date of acquisition of this place of residence can be considered 2008. In addition to the house, Richard Hammond owns a helicopter, a car park (the celebrity actively collects Porsche cars).
Radio and television career
Today, the celebrity recalls his original place of work with humor. First, the young man was hired as a radio assistant (BBC Radio York). The showman began to lead one of the morning programs at the station. The TV star says his main duties were serving tea, coffee, interviewing turnip farmers, blacksmiths building gates for the Pope.
Rich, as a young man, often changed jobs. After he left BBC Radio York, he managed to collaborate with several other radio stations. The presenter had to conduct news broadcasts. Subsequently, Richard said that the frequent change of work was due to his romantic nature. The guy believed that he had to gain experience, try himself literally everywhere.
Hammond has always had a passionate love for cars and technology, so when he got into TV, he was given the opportunity to host Men & Motors programs. After working on the radio, the young man found himself in an unusual atmosphere. However, this fact did not prevent him from successfully developing in Mens and Motors. Soon, Richard was offered to lead projects in invisible worlds, Brainiac (the series "Brainbreakers" can be considered an outstanding project), Crufts (a program about animals).
top gear
The TV presenter considers the film Top Gear to be a dream job (time of participation - 2002). The Top Gear show began to work according to a specific format. Richard's co-hosts were Jeremy Clarkson and James May. Often, work colleagues called the showman hamster, which meant "hamster." His behavior was appropriate. The TV presenter was a big fan of something to eat. As Jeremy Clarkson noted, it was often food purchased "in a trailer around the corner."
Scientific Nonsense with Richard Hammond
This project is one of the most outstanding. In it, scholars detail how an adventure can be made up of numerous obstacles. The presenter presents various scientific experiments, unusual amateur video clips. Accidents of various people are demonstrated, understood from a scientific point of view. It is told why this or that trick was ended in failure and humiliation.
Over the past 3 months, Richard Hammond had 2 accidents! The last one happened on June 10, when during the filming of the 2nd season of the Grand Tour in St. Gallen, Switzerland, Richard was driving an expensive sports electric car Rimac Concept One could not enter the turn. This moment was captured on camera:
According to Jeremy and James, they heard the explosion and immediately ran to the scene of the accident, where they saw Richard lying near the burning car.
Hammond was unspeakably lucky, he was injured in the form of a crack in the knee during the overturning of the car, but managed to get out on his own before the electric car caught fire. The car is valued at $1 million.
On the day of the accident, Jeremy Clarkson tweeted that it was the worst accident he had ever seen and that Richard was fine.
It was the biggest crash I "ve ever seen and the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK.
The injured host was immediately taken by helicopter to the nearest hospital and on the second day he gave his video commentary from the hospital, where he thanks the medical service, his co-hosts for saving him, and also apologizes to his wife and daughters for the fact that he such an idiot
And just under three months ago, Hammond had been in a previous accident! During the filming of the second season in Mozambique, the presenter, moving at high speed, fell off his motorcycle and lost consciousness. Despite the terrible incident, the presenter did not even have to seek emergency medical attention.
But that is not all. Back in 2006, while filming Top Gear, Richard also had a serious accident. The presenter hit her at the airport, piloting a Vampire jet car at a speed of 464 km / h. Then the consequences of the accident were much worse, because. doctors assessed his condition as “serious but stable”. Nevertheless, everything worked out.
It is hoped that such a large experience of accidents will make it clear to Richard to be much more careful in the future.
