News In Briefs

Hamster Update

By Brian Lysaght

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Richard Hammond, a host of the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Top Gear television program, is in serious condition at a U.K. hospital after he crashed a 300 miles-per-hour, jet-powered dragster at a test track.

Hammond, 36, was driving a car called the Vampire while filming for the show when the accident occurred yesterday at Elvington Airfield, east of York, in northern England, the BBC said on its Web site.

He was taken by helicopter to Leeds General Infirmary. Hammond is in serious but stable condition and there was some improvement overnight, said a hospital spokeswoman who didn't give her name.

Dave Ogden, a firefighter who was working with the film crew at the track, told the BBC that Hammond was attempting to break the British land-speed record when the accident occurred. The car had done a run at over 300 mph, then on another pass veered to the right and flipped with one of its parachutes out.

A 30-foot (9-meter) long yellow Vampire powered by a Rolls- Royce aircraft engine and driven by Colin Fallows touched 300 mph to break the British land speed record at Elvington in 2000. It wasn't clear whether Hammond was driving the same car.

Top Gear is scheduled to begin its ninth season on the air next month. It runs on Sunday nights, when Hammond and co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May test cars ranging from exotic roadsters to wrecks, and record the adventures for the program.

Colleagues Visit

Clarkson and May said they traveled to the hospital today.

``I would just like to say how heartened Richard will be when I tell him just how many motorists and truck drivers on my way here wound down their windows to say they were rooting for him,'' Clarkson said in an e-mailed statement.

In the show, Clarkson has nicknamed the diminutive and excitable Hammond ``hamster.''

The crash will be investigated by the government's Health & Safety Executive as well as the BBC, the broadcaster said in a statement yesterday.

``We are looking into all the factors of this accident and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage until we know the full situation,'' the BBC said.

posted by Steve @ Thursday, September 21, 2006