'Accidents happen': Ex-BBC Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond on Preston-born Freddie Flintoff's horror crash

Hammond, who now presents The Grand Tour on Amazon's Prime Video alongside his two former Top Gear hosts James May and Jeremy Clarkson, previously worked on the flagship BBC motoring show between 2002 and 2015.

With ex-Lancashire and England cricketer Flintoff having joined Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris in taking the reigns on the show, his vehicle tragically flipped over whilst the crew were filming a segment back in 2022, resulting in the Ashes star being rushed to hospital for vital emergency medical treatment.

While Flintoff has yet to publicly discuss the incident, those close to him insist that he is lucky to be alive, with Hammond offering his well-wishes to Flintoff and explaining that risks are inherent in the job - something he knows only too well having survived two extreme crashes himself.

"I feel for the guy and it sounds like a really traumatic accident and a horrible experience," Hammond told Times Radio. "I only ever wish him all the best from it. I had a couple of bad ones, but accidents do happen, you know. They went through our systems and protocols very closely and we weren’t found wanting because the fact of the matter is, sometimes things do go wrong.

"It is fundamental to what we do," Hammond continued, with the BBC having stated that Top Gear will be off-air for 'the foreseeable future'. "I don’t think [cars'] appeal will ever diminish and therefore taking a well mitigated, a well-controlled risk, I think, is excusable and in the knowledge that sometimes it’s going to go wrong.

"In terms of corporate responsibility and responsibility on the part of those running the show and asking us to do these things is that everything is in place to mitigate the effects should things go wrong."

In 2006, Hammond was filming a segment for Top Gear at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York when he crashed a jet-powered Vampire dragster car, resulting in injuries so bad he had to be airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary for emergency treatment. His second crash came in 2017 whilst working on The Grand Tour, when he rolled as Rimac Concept One off the road and down a hill.

Co-host Clarkson said at the time that 'it was the biggest crash I’ve ever seen and the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK.'