By Sarah Smithon Thursday, 21 Sep 2006 Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is in a "serious but stable" condition after the jet-powered car he was driving crashed at close to 300 miles per hour.
The 36-year-old had been attempting to break the British land speed record of 300.3mph on a former Royal Air Force base near Leeds when the car came off the runway and rolled over several times.
He was airlifted to hospital, where fellow Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May have today been with Hammond's family at his bedside. His condition improved somewhat overnight.
The car he was driving, Vampire, is a rocket-powered dragster that already holds the British land speed record.
Former fireman Dave Ogden was one of the first on the scene when the crash happened and said that Hammond was travelling at close to 300mph.
"They had just done one more run and were planning to finish when it veered off to the right," he said. Ogden and his crew found the car upside down and half-buried in the grass.
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