Richard Hammond, the host of the BBC America series ''Richard Hammond's Crash Course,'' speaks at the Cable portion of the Television Critics Association Summer press tour in Beverly Hills, California, US, August 1, 2012. REUTERS/Fred Prouser

 

Former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was airlifted to the hospital in Switzerland on Saturday following a dramatic car crash while filming for his new show, but his injuries were not serious, a spokesman said.

Hammond, 47, was driving an electric sports car during filming for The Grand Tour when the crash happened, the spokesman for the show said.

"Richard was conscious and talking, and climbed out of the car himself before the vehicle burst into flames," a spokesman for The Grand Tour said in a statement.

"He was flown by air ambulance to hospital in St Gallen to be checked over, revealing a fracture to his knee," it said. "The cause of the crash is unknown and is being investigated."

Jeremy Clarkson, his friend and colleague, said the crash "was the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK".

Hammond was involved in a much more serious crash over a decade ago when filming for his old show Top Gear. He suffered serious brain injuries and was in the hospital for five weeks after a Vampire drag racer he was driving burst a tire and left the course at 463 kilometres/hour at Elvington airfield, near the British city of York, in September 2006.

Hammond recovered and returned to broadcasting and to Top Gear, which aired in more than 200 countries and was watched by 350 million viewers worldwide.

He left the BBC show along with colleagues Jeremy Clarkson and James May when Clarkson was fired in 2015 for physically attacking a member of the production team.

The Grand Tour, an Amazon series, reunites the old Top Gear team. Saturday's accident occurred during the filming of its second series.