So - was the high-speed crash Richard Hammonds fault?

lululaluau

What I want to know is why did the owner of the car let an unqualified person, (by unqualified I mean that the car has a jet engine, aren't they usually "driven" by experienced pilots?), drive his ridiculously expensive piece of machinery and then winge when it all went pear shaped?

I like Hammond, good on him for being such a good sport on Top Gear last night!

Little Bo Peep

I think it's a bit unfair of the owner to say that he shouldn't have put his foot on the brakes when the tyre blew because he was told not to in the briefing - it would have been a split second instinctive action, if he was in any other car and had a blowout his first reaction would be to brake to try to gain control of the car. He was travelling at close to 300mph and how many of us could say that if we had a tyre blowout at that speed we wouldn't panic and forget everything that we were told to do?

jeff k

It was not his fault the tyre blew out, I think it was rather cleaver the way he stopped the car with his head, a work of genius.

thebestnamesarealreadytaken0909

if it was a tyre blow out as seen on the news reports this morning. How can that be richards fault?
clearly it was not his fault. either the tyre was defective or there was something on the track that caused the tyre to blow.
so was the track checked between each run for debris?
if not why not?
the accident happened on his third run. so why did they need to do three runs?
if it was for editing and technical reasons clearly that is the fault of the producer and director. with a dangerous car such as that one, it would have made more sense to set several cameras up with remote zoom, etc to do the job of recording the stunt (any road going car and i'd say test drive).

to sum up no it was not hammonds fault unless he did something to the tyre that blew.

in my opinion the tyre may have picked up debris from the track between runs and as the tyre heated that bit of debris worked it's way into the tyre deeper until the tyre blew.
but that is just my opinion. I'm no driver nor am i a mechanic. it just seems to me to be the most logical cause of the accident.

Sir Sidney Snot

If he was told NOT to brake when in full flight then yes it was his fault. I was just glad the bloke survived and is back on Top Gear where he belongs! Long live the Hamster!

vteclimey

No way could it have been Richards fualt.

It is clear it was the tyre blowing that was the problem.

If there is any fualt, its the fualt of those who should have been checking the tyres and seeing if there was dangerous wear. That runway is very abrasive and the tyres would take a lot of punishment going that fast on that tarmac.

breezinabout

How will we know if he applied the brakes or not when the tyre blew. If he did then he was wrong to do that, because that is not the correct procedure when dealing with a tyre blow out. It would mean that he couldn't control the car then, hence off the track and onto the grass. Anyway I am glad he is okay now. He is a very lucky man.

Who checked the tyre conditions beforehand anyway? I'm sure they would have been new or new-ish tyres, but they should always be double checked for wear and first signs of bulging on the inside and outside walls.

jeanius

how can it possibly be his fault it was an accident. Although you could be really mean and say his ego was to blame.

Chigga

Haha, when did this happen? I am in Toronto, but I subscribe to BBC Canada, and they have Top Gear....

It seems like it would be Richard Hammonds fault though...lol

Oh, I am just checking it now on the news...that's sad news, I like him in Top Gear, I hope his condition improves....

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