Mrs Hammond says she ‘almost went to pieces’ after crash
RICHARD HAMMOND’S wife has told of the moment she “almost went to pieces” upon learning he had been involved in a second serious crash. Hammond, 47, was filming for
The Grand Tour in Switzerland when the car he was in crashed and burst into flames, just moments after he managed to escape it. His wife Mindy said she is “incredibly grateful” he managed to come out the other side without any major injury, apart from a broken knee. Writing in the Sunday Express yesterday, she told how she found out from Hammond that he had been involved in the crash and the effect it had on their two daughters, Izzy, 16, and Willow, 13.
She said: “None of us in our little family dare consider what the outcome would have been if Richard hadn’t scrambled his way out of that car last weekend. We’re just incredibly grateful he got out and escaped with cuts, bruises and a broken knee. Before they loaded him on to the stretcher he called me, anxious to let me know he’d ‘had a bit of a shunt’ but was okay. James (May) spoke to me moments later and gave me a little more information.”
She said Hammond was “downplaying what had happened” due to the shock of getting out of the car seconds before it burst into flames. Mrs Hammond said she began to “feel peculiar” after hearing the news while she was shopping with her eldest daughter. After reassuring each other that Hammond would be fine, she added: “But in the back of my mind – and Izzy’s too – were the memories of his last accident. I’m not a panicker, but I almost went to pieces this time.”
Hammond’s most recent accident – which left his Grand Tour co-star Jeremy Clarkson fearing he had been killed – came 11 years after he suffered life-threatening head injuries following a highspeed crash at Elvington airfield, near York, as he filmed for BBC’s
Top Gear in 2006. He was in a coma for two weeks following the 288mph accident, but made a full recovery.