Richard Hammond has previously said he believes his 2006 crash may be behind his memory problems — and he has now suggested in 2026 that little has changed
Richard Hammond’s near-fatal 2006 crash appears to have had a lasting impact, with the former Grand Tour star saying he is still living with a “brain injury”. He was filming a Top Gear segment when a tyre on the 320mph, jet-powered Vampire dragster blew out and he veered off the track.
Hammond said earlier this year that, while the accident at Elvington Airfield near York — which left him in a coma — “wasn’t frightening”, he remembered thinking it “simply occurred to me that the next thing on my to-do list was to die”.
In 2023, he told the Diary of a CEO podcast he believed the crash could be behind his memory problems, describing it as “not brilliant”. He has now suggested in 2026 that little has changed.
Richard has since reflected on what he fears may be irreversible. Quizzed on whether life would feel different if the crash had never happened, he said the brain injury hasn’t gone away — and believes it will stay with him permanently.
Speaking on a joint podcast for High Performance and DRIVETRIBE on YouTube, Richard said: “That, I don’t know because that was a lot of time staring out rain-streaked hospital windows contemplating my own sanity and emotional state. Yes.
“And, you know, brain injury is with me forever probably, and I do worry about it, will lead to early-onset dementia. I very much hope not, but it’s entirely possible that it could.”
When asked whether he’d had scans to check for the condition, he said: “No, I’m scared to death to do it, but I absolutely should. No, I absolutely should, but I’m honestly too scared because I do lose stuff a lot.
“I do forget stuff, but that’s probably because I’m 56 and not concentrating. But I should.”
Richard added that he’s anxious enough when he goes for his yearly check-up at the doctor’s, suggesting he dreads the outcome — and believes he’d feel no different if he were facing a brain scan.
When pressed on what precisely frightened him about the potential outcome, he replied: “Because I wouldn’t want to know that’s what was coming, would I?”
In September, Richard commemorated 20 years since the devastating Elvington crash and paid tribute to the emergency crews who came to his aid that day. In a heartfelt Instagram post, he expressed his desire to thank them “from the bottom of my heart”.
Richard also described himself as “forever grateful” for the assistance he received, confessing he had been convinced he was “about to die”. He wrote: “Twenty years ago today, I came to an abrupt stop upside down in a Yorkshire field, convinced I was about to die.”
He recalled trying to release the parachute, yet “disaster was, it seemed, my fate”. He continued: “Having done everything I could to avert it, I gave myself over to that fate.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
