While filming an episode of The Grand Tour in Mozambique, host Richard Hammond crashed a motorcycle, sustaining a head injury. Hammond subsequently gave a detailed account of his condition with the statement that he is “not dead.”
“I banged my head, yes, along with pretty much everything else apart from my left thumb, which remains unbruised,” Hammond wrote on DriveTribe. He said details of the “how and why” of the crash will have to wait until “later in the year on the show.”
Regarding the extent of his injuries, Hammond said: “put it this way, I don’t think I can get a book out of it.” He was referring to a serious 2006 crash he sustained while driving the Vampire jet dragster for Top Gear. Hammond was out of commission for some time after that crash, and wrote a memoir about the experience and his life. Despite the seriousness of the injuries he sustained, Hammond still gets ribbed occasionally by co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May about both the crash and the book.
“Richard was traveling quite fast when he came off. It caused instant horror on set,” an anonymous show source told Grand Tour Nation regarding the Mozambique motorcycle crash. The crash apparently took place in a remote area, and the lack of nearby medical facilities was apparently as much a concern as Hammond’s injuries. It’s not an unfamiliar situation: while filming Top Gear, both Hammond and May were injured in remote locations, and had to make hours-long treks to hospitals.
“The lads are known for having a laugh on set but Richard’s previous accident is still fresh in their minds,” the source said, presumably referring to the Vampire dragster crash. “They were all shaken by the latest incident.” Publicly, though, it’s business as usual.
“Doctors say Richard Hammond suffered no damage to his brain in his bike crash. Because he hasn’t got one,” Clarkson tweeted yesterday.
