Former Top Gear presenter climbed out of vehicle moments before it burst into flames following fall down a hill in St Gallen, Switzerland

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was seconds from being “incinerated” after a car he was driving plummeted down a hill, flipped over and burst into flames.

The accident occurred in the town of St Gallen in north-east Switzerland during a shoot for his Amazon show The Grand Tour. The 47-year-old managed to escape the wreckage of a Rimac Concept One supercar worth £2m that had plummeted down the steep Hemberg Hill climb.

Fellow presenter Jeremy Clarkson tweeted it was the biggest and “most frightening” crash he had witnessed.



Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) It was the biggest crash I've ever seen and the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK.

The show’s producer, Andy Wilman, described how Clarkson and James May had run to the scene as soon as it happened, fearing the worst.

“When they saw the wreckage on fire they thought Richard was dead. It was really bad,” Wilman told the Sunday Mirror. “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,” he added.

Hammond was taken by air ambulance to a nearby hospital but suffered only a fracture to his knee. Wilman said the presenter was “very shaken” by the accident and was being kept in for observation. “He has been very lucky. It’s a miracle really and certainly another one of his lives gone,” he said.

The crash happened when Hammond was racing the electric car along the Hemberg Hill Climb, a one-mile-long course that climbs 157 metres (515ft). The Rimac Concept One car he was driving has a 1,224-horsepower motor and can reach speeds of up to 220mph.

The Grand Tour ends with a splutter having started with a roar Read more

An Amazon spokeswoman said that Hammond had been “involved in a serious crash”, adding that he “very fortunately suffered no serious injury”.

“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.”

A statement from the organisers of the mountain race said: “On Saturday, an accident took place at the Bergrennen Hemberg in a demonstration run between the training courses. The vehicle left the track and landed in the meadow. The fire brigade extinguished the burning car quickly.”

The latest incident comes less than three months after Hammond was injured falling off a motorbike while filming in a remote part of Mozambique.

The presenter later posted on the DriveTribe website: “Yes I fell off but yes, I’m fine. Sorry … Thanks for inquiries re my slight shunt whilst filming for GT. I can confirm that yes, I fell off a bike, many times, in fact and yes, I banged my head and everything else. But life goes on.”

Hammond suffered life-threatening head injuries and brain damage 11 years ago when the car he was driving at 288mph crashed while filming a Top Gear stunt.

The presenter was in a coma for a fortnight but left hospital after five weeks and eventually made a full recovery.

Hammond, along with Clarkson and May, were presenters of the BBC’s Top Gear but defected to Amazon after Clarkson was fired by the broadcaster for punching a producer.

The Grand Tour made its debut on Amazon Prime in November 2016. The number of viewers each episode has attracted has not been made public by Amazon, with even the presenters saying they did not know.

May said: “They won’t tell us. That’s the rules and they really won’t.”