Former Top Gear star Richard Hammond has shared his worries over the long-term health impact of his 2006 crash.

The 56-year-old actor was involved in a near-fatal accident while filming the BBC motoring series alongside co-hosts James May and Jeremy Clarkson when he lost control of a jet-powered dragster travelling at 300 mph.

The incident caused a severe brain injury and a two-week coma, followed by a long and difficult recovery which involved dealing with significant memory loss and other psychological effects.

Two decades on, the ex-Grand Tour host is still dealing with the aftermath of the injury, admitting in a recent interview that he panics when he does something as simple as losing the keys, worried it’s a sign of mental decline.

He told The Sunday Times: ‘Brain-wise, yeah. I mean, I worry. I’m scared. Of course. That was a big impact. Will it lead to onset of dementia?

‘I don’t know. 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”.

‘So yeah, there is a legacy from that. I will carry that forever.’

Hammond later got into another crash while filming Amazon Prime’s GrandTour in 2017, where he fractured his knee and now has 13 pins and a metal plate to support it – with plans to have another operation in the future.

No doubt, his family is relieved he’s now stepped back from car-based shows after stepping down from Grand Tour in 2024. He and his two co-hosts celebrated the show’s return with three new hosts – Francis Bourgeois, James Engelsman and Thomas Holland.

The trio even make their own cameos in the new season as they pass the baton over to the next generation.

Speaking of next generations – despite dancing at death’s door with his daring driving stunts more than once – his daughter Izzy has somewhat followed in his footsteps and has become a Formula E racer.

Earlier this year, she managed to walk away from her own nasty-looking accident, and her father has mixed feelings about it, as he told Metro.

‘I’m a father, like any other father. I don’t want to see my little girl hurt, but I don’t want to hold her back from opportunities that present themselves.

‘She’s carving her own career, so I can sit back and watch her do that and only applaud,’ he shared.

Still, with his own time getting into deadly scrapes (mostly) over, he’s trying to adopt a somewhat healthier lifestyle, encouraged by his new girlfriend Keira Glen.

‘I’ve taken up more serious running, and I’m going to have a go at a small triathlon next year. Which means I’ve had to take up wild swimming,’ he revealed to the Times, joking that after initially protesting taking a cold dip, he ‘absolutely loved it.’

Statistics and facts about early-onset dementia

According to Dementia UK:

  • An estimated 7.5%, 70,800 of the estimated 944,000 people living with dementia in the UK have early-onset dementia.
  • Someone develops dementia every three minutes in the UK.
  • One in two of us will be affected by dementia in our lifetime, whether that be through caring for a loved one with the condition, developing it ourselves, or both.
  • 53% of people in the UK know someone who has dementia.

Early-onset dementia support groups and help can be found on the Dementia UK website.


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