Chilling echo of the 288mph crash that put him in coma

YESTERDAY’S smash was just the latest in a string of accidents during Hammond’s high-octane career.

He suffered life-threatening head injuries in a 288mph crash while filming for BBC’S Top Gear in 2006.

He was dragged across the ground after his jet-powered Vampire dragster flipped off the concrete strip at Elvington

airfield near York and ploughed into the grass. Hammond was bidding for the British land speed record at the time. The 5ft 7in star was wearing a helmet and experts later said that had he been any taller he would have been decapitated.

Hammond spent two weeks in a coma as medics gave him a 50/50 chance of survival. He later told how he suffered short-term memory loss and depression following the ordeal. In March this year he fell off his motorbike while filming The Grand Tour in Mozambique.

He tweeted: “Fell off a bike, many times, and yes, I banged my head and everything else. But life goes on.”

And he added later: “I banged pretty much everything apart from my left thumb, which remains un-bruised.”