HEARTBROKEN: Richard Hammond shares heartbreaking dementia fears after h0rror crash
Richard Hammond has admitted he still worries about the long-term effects of the devastating Top Gear crash that left him with a serious brain injury nearly 20 years ago.
The 56-year-old presenter was critically injured in 2006 while driving a jet-powered dragster at the former RAF Elvington airfield near York.
The accident left Hammond with a frontal lobe brain injury and he was placed in a medically induced coma while doctors treated him.
Now, almost two decades later, the former Top Gear and The Grand Tour star says moments of forgetfulness can still make him wonder whether the crash could eventually have more serious consequences.
“Brain-wise, yeah. I mean, I worry. I’m scared. Of course,” Hammond told The Sunday Times.
“That was a big impact. Will it lead to the onset of dementia? I don’t know.”
‘Every Time I Lose My Keys, I Think About It’
Hammond admitted that even everyday lapses in memory can sometimes bring those concerns back.
“Every time I lose my keys, and I do lose things, I think: ‘Oh Christ, is that brain injury, or is that just I’m 56? And we all do it’,” he said.
“So yeah, there is a legacy from that. I will carry that forever.”
The broadcaster has previously discussed memory issues following the crash and the uncertainty over whether they are connected to his injury.
Speaking on Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast in 2023, Hammond recalled the terrifying details of the accident.
He said he had been travelling at just under 320mph before a tyre failure sent the vehicle out of control.
“What happened is that the front tyre had delaminated and blown,” he explained.
“The car had skewed right and was going off-road, but it was still doing 290mph as it started to roll.”
Hammond Says He Has to Work Harder to Remember Things
The presenter has said that remembering certain things can now require more conscious effort.
“I have to consciously write memories down and work hard to recall them sometimes,” he said in the earlier interview.
Hammond stressed that he does not know whether this is connected to his brain injury.
“It might be because I’m 53, it might be because I’m working a lot and I’m tired, it might be the onset of something else.”
He also said at the time that he “probably needs an MRI scan” and acknowledged that the crash “could mean there is an increased risk” of conditions involving memory loss.
However, Hammond has also pointed out that forgetfulness has always been part of his personality.
“I do drop the ball – I forget stuff, I forget keys,” he said.
“That’s just me, that’s not a function of something going wrong. It’s how I am.”
Crash Also Took Emotional Toll
The physical injuries were only part of Hammond’s recovery.
He has previously spoken openly about the profound effect the crash had on his mental health and emotional control.
In a 2008 interview with The Sunday Times, Hammond said he had “suffered mortally with depression” following the accident.
“I damaged all the complicated bits of the brain to do with processing and emotional control,” he explained.
“I was prey to every single emotion that swept over me, and I couldn’t deal with it.”
Hammond said he effectively had to relearn how to manage parts of everyday life.
“I had to learn things from scratch,” he added.
Despite those lasting concerns, Hammond has continued working in television and motoring projects throughout the years since the accident.
His latest comments do not amount to a dementia diagnosis, nor does he say doctors have told him he will develop the condition.
Instead, they reveal the uncertainty he continues to live with after suffering such a significant brain injury.
For Hammond, something as simple as misplacing his keys can still bring back questions about what the crash may mean for his future.
Nearly 20 years later, the accident remains a defining event in his life, with effects he says he expects to carry permanently.
