Richard Hammond recalls convincing himself he was about to die in 300mph Top Gear crash, 20 years on

From the Newshound archive · first published 20 September 2026 · last updated 21 September 2026.

Richard Hammond, now 56, has paid tribute to the emergency workers who saved his life after his near-fatal 2006 Top Gear crash, naming individual doctors and medics in a deeply personal Instagram post marking the 20th anniversary. The jet-powered Vampire dragster's front tyre blew at over 300mph at RAF Elvington airfield near York, flipping the vehicle upside down and leaving Hammond with serious brain injuries. Doctors held him in a deep coma for several weeks as his brain swelled inside his skull.

Hammond wrote that in his final seconds before impact, 'it simply occurred to me that the next thing on my To Do list was to die.'

While unconscious, Hammond experienced a vivid dream of walking the fells above Buttermere in the Lake District — the moment he turned back from a tree coincided with his wife Mindy being warned he might not survive and urging him desperately not to give up.

Hammond said he has 'no memory' of getting himself out of the wreckage, and credits the medics he named as the reason he lived to become a father to two daughters.