Grateful Hammond to Front Air Ambulance Documentary

By Hannah Chapman

TOP Gear presenter Richard Hammond is to present a television documentary about the air ambulance that saved his life.The BBC series, called Helicopter Heroes, will include footage from 60 lifesaving missions flown by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.It will be presented by Hammond, who was airlifted to hospital by the helicopter after a 300mph crash at Elvington Airfield, near York, in September.He wanted to find a way of thanking the medics who saved his life.In his opening words to viewers, he will say: “When you’re critically ill or badly injured, speed can save your life.”This is the Yorkshire Air Ambulance – and last year it probably saved my life, by airlifting me from a wrecked jet-car to intensive care in just 15 minutes.”I’m only one of 1,000 grateful patients who are alive today thanks to its crew.”Fans of Hammond raised nearly [pounds]250,000 for the air ambulance through an internet appeal in the wake of his crash.Martin Eede, chief executive of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said it was exciting that people across the country would be seeing the paramedics in action.The documentary will also feature many of the people who have supported fundraising events for the service, including the annual shed warming held at Egton, near Whitby, and the Heroes of Flight Ball, at York’s National Railway Museum.Mr Eede said: “This is the first time the efforts of the Yorkshire people, who so freely give their time and money in support of the air ambulance, have been shown.”All the paramedics were fitted with chest cameras and we also had four cameras on board the helicopter.”But we wanted to give a true picture, it is not just about the paramedics who dash around saving lives – it is also about the thousands and thousands of people in Yorkshire who help make the service happen.”The documentary will be shown in ten episodes on BBC1, starting on Monday, at 9.15am, and will be repeated later in the year as a six-part series on primetime television.Speed almost killed – and then saved RICHARD HAMMOND had completed six runs in a jetpowered dragster at Elvington Airfield, York, during filming for the hit BBC show Top Gear, when things went wrong.Fourteen seconds into his seventh run, with the Vampire car touching 288mph, the right front tyre blew out, sending the vehicle careering towards the grass outfield, where it rolled several times.It came to rest upside down, with the upper part of the car and Hammond’s head embedded in the turf.Fire crews and ambulance staff reached him in seconds.The Yorkshire Air Ambulance was in the air within two minutes and reached Elvington 12 minutes later.It took the crew 15 minutes to prepare Mr Hammond, 36, for flight and a further 15 before he reached the neurological unit at Leeds General Infirmary.He was found to have suffered a significant brain injury, and doctors initially predicted he would be in hospital for 15 months.Instead, he made a remarkable recovery and was able to leave hospital within weeks.Hammond has since made a full recovery and made a return to Top Gear alongside copresenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May in January. A report into the crash by the Health and Safety Executive said his amazing recovery was due to the structural integrity of the Vampire dragster, which survived the crash intact; the design of the driver restraint arrangements; the crash helmet selected and the emergency rescue services on site.

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