Former Top Gear host Richard Hammond has apologised to his family for being a "colossal" idiot after skidding off a hilly road in Switzerland and needing to be airlifted to hospital.
The 47-year old British TV star was filming The Grand Tour with Jeremy Clarkson and James May on the Hemburg Hill Climb in Switzerland when the crash took place. He suffered a knee fracture, and the $3.5 million Rimac electric supercar he was driving was completely written off.
"It was the biggest crash I've ever seen and the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK," Clarkson tweeted afterwards.
In a video posted to YouTube by The Grand Tour, Hammond made a series of jokes before thanking medical staff and saying sorry to his wife and children.
"Hello. Yes, it's true - I've binned it. Again," he said.
"The net result being I'm here in hospital in Switzerland - this is my knee that they're going to turn from this into this, giving me a Swiss army knee hopefully later today," he joked, pointing at a set of X-rays.
"I'd like to thank all the medical professionals that got me by air ambulance from the crash to this hospital and dealt with me ever since. I'd like to say thank you as well to [The Grand Tour co-host] James May, who smuggled a bottle of gin in for me last night - I shouldn't have said that out loud."
"And, most importantly, sorry to my wife Mindy and my daughters Izzy and Willow - I'm sorry for being such a colossal..." he trails off, as May holds up Dean Burnett book The Idiot Brain in front of the camera.
"See you all later. Heal, heal," he willed his knee.
The crash on Saturday (local time) was Hammond's second serious one while working on a TV show - the first occurring in 2006 during filming of Top Gear, seeing him suffer brain injuries and be placed in a coma for two weeks.
On this occasion, Hammond was "conscious and talking", and was able to climb "out of the car himself before the vehicle burst into flames", a statement said.
Newshub.
