Former Top Gear star Richard Hammond cheated death on Saturday after a dramatic high-speed car crash in Switzerland.
Horrifying footage captured the moment the daredevil TV presenter’s 800kW Rimac Concept One electric supercar swerved off a road before rolling down a hill and bursting into flames during filming for his TV show The Grand Tour 2.
Incredibly, Hammond, 47, was able to pull himself from the wreckage before the car caught fire. He was airlifted to hospital with a fractured knee.
It is the second time Mr Hammond has escaped from a terrifying crash. He was in a coma for two weeks in September 2006 after the jet-powered Vampire car he was driving for Top Gear at 463km/h suffered a burst tyre during a landspeed record attempt.
undefinedOf Saturday’s accident, co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson tweeted last night: "It was the biggest crash I’ve ever seen and the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK."
Last month, after being knocked out in a motorbike accident while filming in Africa, the star swore never to take part in any more dangerous stunts for the sake of his "beautiful" family.
The father of two was driving the white Rimac around the Hemberg Hill Climb in the pretty village of St Gallen in northern Switzerland for his Amazon Prime show when the horrifying accident happened on Saturday.
Photographs from the scene showed the flipped car in flames by the side of a road before the blaze was extinguished by firefighters, leaving it a burnt-out hulk. Race trials were being held on a closed section of mountain road ahead of the race on Sunday.
There were reports that Mr Hammond and co-stars James May and Clarkson had driven the racetrack three times in different cars before the crash.
File picture: Fred Prouser / Reuters.
After last month’s accident, Mr Hammond vowed never to put his life on the line again, saying: "I’ve a beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters. I’m not going to risk leaving them. Not for their sake, but for mine."
Mr Hammond was pictured last Thursday charging the Croatian-made car, with May at the wheel. He was seen earlier on Saturday filming in the town of Toggenburg, before making training runs for the mountain race which, according to race spokesman Marco Moser, will go ahead as planned on Sunday.
Confirming he had suffered a fractured knee, hospital sources added: "He is going to be OK."
A spokesman for The Grand Tour said: "Richard Hammond was involved in a serious crash but very fortunately suffered no serious injury. Nobody else was in the car or involved in the accident. The cause is unknown and is being investigated."
A source close to the presenter – who lives in a castle in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire with wife Amanda, 46, and daughters, Izzy, 16, and Willow, 13 – said: "Richard has had a load of X-rays and he has a fractured knee. But other than that he’s going to be fine. He’s very lucky."