21 February 2024 , 19:57
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The Grand Tour star Richard Hammond has addressed Freddie Flintoff’s near death experience on the set of Top Gear - having survived near fatal accidents on the BBC show himself.
The 54-year-old television presenter was a co-host on Top Gear from 2002 until 2015 - and has subsequently co-hosted Amazon’s The Grand Tour since 2016. In 2022, 46-year-old Freddie was filming a segment of Top Gear when they vehicle he was in flipped and he had to be raced to hospital for emergency treatment.
Top Gear got shelved by the BBC as a result and Freddie has still not publicly discussed his horrifying accident - but those close to him have claimed he is lucky to be alive following the accident. Last September, he was seen with injuries on his face as he continued to recover from the crash nine months later.
Now Richard has addressed the accident - having survived a horror crash of his own in 2006 while filming Top Gear and survived a second serious crash in 2017 while filming The Grand Tour. Richard says he wishes Freddie well, explaining: “I feel for the guy and it sounds like a really traumatic accident and a horrible experience. I only ever wish him all the best from it.”
Richard Hammond has discussed the near fatal accident Freddie Flintoff endured on Top Gear (@TimesRadio/Twitter)He continued, talking to Times Radio: “I had a couple of bad ones, but accidents do happen, you know, we were they went through our systems and protocols very closely and we weren't found wanting because the fact of the matter is, sometimes things do go wrong.” Addressing the risks, he continued: “It is fundamental to what we do.
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“I don't think [cars] appeal will ever diminish and therefore taking a well mitigated, a well controlled risk, I think, is excusable and in the knowledge that sometimes it's going to go wrong. In terms of corporate responsibility and responsibility on the part of those running the show and asking us to do these things is that everything is in place to to mitigate the effects should things go wrong.”
Sharing details of his own incidents, Richard said: “I mean for me a tyre deal delaminated and blew it 320 miles an hour. Nobody can stop that. I mean, you could trace that back to a bug that got in the rubber when they tapped the rubber tree, or, I don't know, something caused the tire to delaminate. That was an accident.
Freddie was airlifted following a serious crash on the set of the BBC show in December 2022 (BBC/Lee Brimble)“But everything that followed from there was great. They have the right contacts in place. They did things in the right order. They got an air ambulance there. Everything was done properly. And that's all you can ultimately do, isn't it?”
Richard crashed a jet-powered Vampire dragster car at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York in 2006. He was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary for emergency treatment - and footage from he crash was aired on Top Gear the following year.
In June 2017, he crashed a Rimac Concept One while filming The Grand Tour in Hemberg, Switzerland - running off a road and crashing down a hill, with the vehicle flipping and rolling down the hill. Co-host Jeremy Clarkson said of the crash: “It was the biggest crash I've ever seen and the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK.”