Richard Hammond recalls life-changing moment he nearly died in 300mph crash

The former Top Gear and Grand Tour host marked the 20th year since the crash by praising those who rescued him

Richard Hammond has praised his rescuers after he was left in a coma twenty years ago after a 300mph crash.

The TV presenter, who at the time was one of the hosts of Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May, was involved in the 2006 incident as he was filming a segment for the popular BBC show.

56-year-old Hammond was left in a coma after the the 320mph (515km/h) jet-powered Vampire dragster he was driving veered off the track at Elvington airfield, near York. In the Instagram post he explains what happened and ends it with a list of emergency service and medical personnel who helped him.

Alongside gut-wrenching photos from the scene, Richard wrote: “Twenty years ago today I came to an abrupt stop upside down in a Yorkshire field, convinced I was about to die.

“A front tyre had blown on the jet powered dragster I had been driving at over 300mph. I had pulled the lever to release the parachute and done my best to steer the car away from disaster, but disaster was, it seemed, my fate and having done everything I could do avert it, I gave myself over to that fate.

“I didn’t scream. It wasn’t frightening. Honestly, the only way I can convey how those few, frantic, last moments felt is that it simply occurred to me that the next thing on my To Do list was to die.

“I didn’t die. I was kept in a deep coma for a few weeks whilst my brain swelled inside my skull, the frontal lobe damaged when it dashed itself against the inside of that supposedly protective housing under the g-forces of deceleration after the car flipped and dug into the mossy, Yorkshire grass.”

He spent two weeks in a coma after the crash and returned to the show in early 2007. He, alongside May and Clarkson hosted Top Gear until 2015 before they moved to The Grand Tour on Amazon, which they fronted until 2024.

“I am only here today to note this anniversary and write these words because of the work of the many people involved in rescuing me from the shattered car, flying me to hospital and treating me there,” Hammond continued.

“I have had so many lucky career breaks, so many amazing adventures around the world and am father to the two happiest, kindest, most wonderfully talented and loving daughters but I would have seen none of them if these people hadn’t turned up to work that day and done their job.

“Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.”