Sad news, co-presenter of the BBC show Top Gear Richard Hammond is in hospital after crashing a jet powered car during shooting for the show.
Conflicting reports from the ambulance crew and the BBC team at the scene, but I hope he comes out of this ok.
Sounds very bad. 280mph jet car turns turtle. I too very much hope he recovers.
I wonder if he was doing a piece on the “JATO” car urban legend? The Discovery Channel show “Mythbusters” did a fun piece on that one, but they rigged the car to be driven by remote control.
Per BBC Radio the Hamster is “Stable”
That was what came to mind to me, too, when reading that article.
Bloody hell, I hope he’s alright…Clarkson did all the stupidly-dangerous things in his wilderness years on satellite TV before the rebirth of Top Gear, and now has a family-man perspective. Richard Hammond probably will have been up for anything. Just hope he’s OK.
(Oh, and when they did that on Mythbusters, I couldn’t help but think “why isn’t anyone in the car?”)
Coudnt believe this when I heard it earlier- hopefully for the sake of his wife and kids hel come out of it ok.
When I heard this story, they said he’d been taken to a neurology ward - suggesting that he’s had serious head injuries. 
Damn, that’s terrible. I watch Top Gear every chance I get, and he seems like a really nice guy.
Unfortunately, given that it’s now the middle of the night in Britain, it’ll probably be a while before we know more.
Oh my, and I love watching top gear! Nothing much to add to the thread except my condolences to his wife and kids. I hope he’s alright, he was always my favorite of the trio.
He was trying to break the British landspeed record. Looks like he failed.
Has at least one young daughter. Very sad. Hopefully he isn’t too bad but it doesn’t look good.
I really Top Gear and Hammond. I don’t drive and have no interest in cars. The show is fantastic though.
Are his teeth OK? They were expensive.
Ironically, the BBC is now showing Mythbusters and the JATO car was on just last night :smack:
This was a purposely designed car however, but even so, 280mph on a runway was pushing it somewhat.
Reports on the front pages of the tabloids conflicted, from 280 to over 300mph at the time of the crash, but the latter may have been an erroneous report mistaking the previous top speed of the car for Hammond’s.
Best of luck to him, especially since he’s a family man (didn’t even realise he was married!) Perhaps James May can be strapped to the next rocket car they test 
Fingers crossed. We need short people on TV.
He’s improving apparently
Maybe he caught site of himself in the rear view mirror and was momentarily blinded by them.
Hope all turns out well. He seems like a realy nice chap on the show.
Amid the confusion of reading numerous reports, I’ve found suggestions that the airfield was the one where the current record was set. And that he wasn’t attempting to break it (at least officially).
More bad news; i’ve heard he’s now suffered a “serious brain injury”.
Get well Hamster. Car guys everywhere are rootin’ for ya. (As, I’m sure, quite a few female groupies)
According to the news, the neurologists say “he will recover”. They didn’t say “he will make a full recovery”, which apparently implies there will be some permanent brain damage. Poor chap.