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Richard Hammond’s recovery from his catastrophic, brain damage-causing accident in a jet car at almost 300 miles per hour should have taken years. In true Flying Hamster fashion, he did it in weeks.
On February 19, 2002, a queue of motorists inched their way along London’s A40 motorway. On a small footbridge above them, a solitary figure stood, gripping the cold metal handrail and staring out at the damp and dreary view. That man was Richard Hammond and he was crapping himself.
Hammond was about half an hour away from an audition for a TV show about cars. A show called Top Gear. In hindsight, he needn’t have worried. The show was made for him. Or more likely, he was made for the show. From his grandparents, Hammond inherited two main traits: “A love of cars and engineering, and an almost equal passion for dare-devilry and danger.”
Hammond was also no stranger to broadcasting; he had ten years of radio experience and was also presenting minor television shows. He was also a freelance motoring writer and occasional photographer. It was like Hammond had been working his entire life for this one shot. And with a young family to support, Hammond needed something to happen.
Four years later, and Richard Hammond has his dream job, is a household name, earns more than enough money to support his family, and just happens to be strapped into a home-made, 10,000 BHP jet car doing 314.4 miles per hour down an abandoned runway – a speed that would have broken the official British speed record had there been officials present.
It was one thing that drove Hammond to be in this situation – one thing and one thing only. Speed. And he had found it by the jet-propelled truckload. In spite of the daredevil nature of this particular stunt, it was for Hammond part-science experiment – an exploration of the fundamental human desire for speed – that, and he just wanted to go really, really fast.
The day’s shooting out at Elvington Airfield had been successful. Hammond had completed a number of runs in the jet-powered car, and they had most of the filming required for the Top Gear segment – all before the noise restriction curfew at 5:30 pm would force them to shut down the operation.
Still, it was 5.25 pm – plenty of time for another run though. The jet car would get through it quickly – that was the whole point, after all. Walking towards the jet car for the last run of the day, Hammond recalled a bit of advice he’d been given from a race car technician who advised him never to race with a full bladder. In an accident, the bladder could burst, causing quick death. Hammond heeded the advice and took a quick pee before setting off one last time in the jet car – a move that might just have saved his life.
It’s 14.25 seconds after take-off that Hammond is aware that something is wrong. Something is very wrong. At 288.3 miles per hour, he’s battling to keep the one tonne vehicle in a straight line. At 14.65 seconds, the right front tyre has blown out. At 15.7 seconds, Hammond has his last memory of the run. He is travelling 232 miles per hour and is being subjected to a deceleration force of six Gs. It’s at this point that Hammond believes he has died – and he’s probably not too far away from the truth; 16.7 seconds after takeoff, the car flips over, slowing from 232 miles per hour to 191 miles per hour in 0.46 seconds. Although Hammond is cocooned within the roll cage of the car, his brain is shunted forward into his skull, its shape distorted by the unnatural forces causing nerve endings to break.
The car digs into the grass, its momentum forces it into a roll and then a flip. At 19 seconds after takeoff, the car comes to a rest on its roof. Hammond has sustained further head injury. His helmet is cracked and caved in, and the tissue surrounding his left eye has been pulverised.
In 19 seconds, Richard Hammond’s life has changed.
Hammond’s recollection of the events that led to his brain damage is remarkably vivid. It’s the moments afterward that are a bit sketchy. In his book, On the Edge, Hammond describes being in a coma as time spent in an entirely different sort of consciousness – not quite sleep, not quite consciousness, a world in between. Although he was told he woke from time to time, Hammond is not able to distinguish those times from a dream. Hammond’s brain has suffered severe trauma and doctors suggest that it will be years before he is able to return home. While much of the initial stages of Hammond’s recovering are a blank, his friends and family live through every painful moment. Particularly his wife, Mindy.
Mindy is left to grapple with the increasing media attention, balance the raising of her children and staying beside her husband as he battles to get better. Hammond recovers from his coma in a matter of days but things still aren’t right. He’s confused and paranoid. Repeating conversations over and over again. Although confused, Hammond is aware of the battle, sometimes feeling trapped by the limitations of his state of mind. But Hammond is a fighter. In what should have taken years, Hammond is well enough to go home in a matter of weeks.
To this day, Hammond continues to battle with the effects of the accident but not only is he back behind the wheel of Top Gear, entertaining millions of fans, car buffs or otherwise with his cheeky brand of Hammond humour, he’s become a role model for the many who need it most.
Why did you decide to bear your soul to the world in a book?
We both sat down, Mindy and I, and agreed that actually pouring out our story was going to be cheaper than therapy and for another thing, acquired brain injuries are a lot more common than you’d think. Sadly, in fact, it’s very common. People don’t do it in jet cars like I did, they get it falling off bikes, off ladders or more sensible ways of getting brain injuries. And we figured that if by some miracle just one person reads it and thinks, “Wow, that resonates with me – I had something similar, or my partner did or I’m in recovery,” it’s worth it. And since we’ve written it, we are getting loads of people saying that in some way or another it’s affected their lives and the book’s just been a useful reference.
All we could do was to be totally honest and people often commend that honesty. But the great thing is that it’s not searing honesty in the sense of the truth about celebrity friends or anything. It’s different. It’s the honest story about two people who went through an ordeal. It was the honest story of what happened and how it affected us. That’s what makes it useful, I hope.
Was it always that Mindy would contribute her perspective to the book?
It was fairly obvious early on that I could only write up until the accident – after the crash, until very recently, I was a bit confused. I couldn’t remember the details and certainly not reliably. And actually, Mindy’s is more than half of the story because it’s more to do with the people around you. In any serious illness, if you are the patient then yes, you are going through it but the people on whom it has a bigger effect are those around you, those close to you. And for me, that was Mindy. Her story is more compelling.
You are very self-analytical throughout the book. Is this a retrospective addition or was this something that was with you at the time?
It was very much with me. For whatever reason, there was almost a regression going on and I think that having been knocked about that badly, it needs to start again and so I went through something like teenage years again, I really did. It was very much a part of recovering.
I’ve sat with troops since, who have returned here from Iraq and Afghanistan injured and quite a number of them with head injuries. And it’s been unbelievably interesting, particularly if it’s been frontal lobe injury despite the fact that the injuries couldn’t have been received in more different circumstances – mine was from messing about in a stupid car on a runway – but actually, the similarities in experiences have been amazing. And I could talk to them from a place of experience about regaining control over your emotions or occasionally losing control over anger, being worried or for some reason, suddenly scared. I could look them in the eye and say, “It is going to get better. Bear with it, it will get better.”
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