Richard Hammond has admitted that he worries he might develop dementia later in life, though he says he is "too scared" to undergo testing. The presenter has been involved in multiple car accidents throughout his career, with two of the most severe occurring while filming Top Gear and The Grand Tour.
Two serious crashes
In September 2006, Richard sustained serious injuries and was left in a coma after losing control of a 320mph jet-powered Vampire dragster at Elvington Airfield near York. Then in 2017, while driving a £2 million Rimac Concept One supercar, the vehicle careered down a hillside in St Gallen, Switzerland. He narrowly managed to get out before the car was engulfed in flames.
Richard has now acknowledged that he suspects there may be permanent damage. When asked whether his perspective on life would differ had the accident not occurred, he conceded that brain injury is "with me forever".
Fear of testing
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 had had scans to check for the condition, he responded: "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 went on to describe himself as "bad enough" when attending his "annual MOT" at the doctor's, admitting he dreads receiving the results and suggesting he would feel no differently about undergoing 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?"
20th anniversary tribute
In September, Richard commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Elvington crash, paying tribute to the emergency services who assisted him on that fateful day. In an Instagram post, he expressed his desire to thank them "from the bottom of my heart". Richard also described himself as "forever grateful" for the help he received, confessing that he had been certain he was "about to die".
He said: "Twenty years ago today, I came to an abrupt stop upside down in a Yorkshire field, convinced I was about to die." He recalled his attempts to release the parachute, yet "disaster was, it seemed, my fate". Richard added: "Having done everything I could to avert it, I gave myself over to that fate."
