Just seen a report on Richard Hammond, the TV Presenter most famous at present for his work on Top Gear is critically ill in hospital.
Apparently he was injured whilst driving a jet powered car in a piece for Top Gear.
Although he was unconscious on arrival at the neurological unit, he was said to have regained consciousness, but his condition was listed as critical.
I do hope he pulls through, since he is one of my favourite TV presenters, but even more so since he has a young family and it must be difficult times for them.
He has always appeared to be one of the unpretentious ‘top blokes’ on TV. My thoughts are with him and his family and friends.
UPDATE: 21st Sept 2006
Hospital has annoucned that Richards condition has stabilised, which hopefully is good news. He is still badly injured but it doesn’t appear to be life threatening now.
Now all we have to do is hope that those pearly white teeth he spent so much money on survived intact or Clarkson won’t let him live it down.
Get well soon Hamster…. We need you back… 2/3 Full is not a full tank.
Some guy (Alex Goss) started a donation page for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to raise funds to cover the cost of the £340 required to pay for the Hammy’s trip to hospital. In just a few hours, it had paid for over 15 more such trips and is still going strong. That is a measure of the popularity of Hamster and the high regard his fans had of him. If we could cure people with well being and will power, he’d be back on the track tomorrow.
Well done Alex (Goss), great idea.
To donate, follow this link: www.justgiving.com/PHRichardHammond
UPDATE: 22 SEPT 2006 10.22 AM
The hospital has just anounced that he is no longer in Intensive Care and has been moved to the High Dependancy Unit.
Doctors have also said he is making satisfactory progress, which is great news.
UPDATE: 22 SEPT 2006 16:23
The collection for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Charity has exceeded the expectations of Alex Goss (from Pistonheads.com) and was over £41,000 at the time of writing this update.
Even better news was the release of a statement from James May in which he said he had a conversation with Hamster…
Mr May said it was not a long talk “but it was a conversation”.
“I’m not a doctor but I am his mate and I believe that deep inside the Hammond I know is perfectly intact,” he said.
Great to see progress is going well…
Great interview with Manek Dubash (of pistonheads.com) on BBC News.
UPDATED: 24th SEPTEMBER 2006 21:16
Things are looking much better for the Hammy now thank god to say.
Either he was really travelling at 30mph, or it goes to prove how strong both the car and Hammy really are.
As for all that crap about getting rid of Top Gear because some Eco-Tree Hugging Numpty wants to jump on the band wagon (horse pulled of course), go add your signature to http://www.petitiononline.com/tg100/petition.html.
I don’t think they BBC will dare tamper with Top Gear. Better not had, you’ll have my kids watching Sky for the rest of their lives.
