Another Top Gear "Serious injury"
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As seen on TV: Top Gear man suffers 'very serious' injury
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 11/11/2006
Second high-speed crash causes health and safety panic, writes James May
James May, the other bloke off Top Gear and co-host of this year's MPH '06 live motoring theatre, was last night said to be "severely hacked off" in his local pub after sustaining a suspected fractured wrist in a high-speed supermarket trolley crash.
May, 43, was performing a live stunt for the MPH extravaganza, billed as "human 10-pin bowling". In this, he attempted to guide a modified shopping trolley, fitted with rudimentary steering, into 10 giant rubber skittles on the opposite side of the stage after being propelled by his co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson, driving a low-powered G-Wiz electric city car.
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However, in what the show's script described as a "humorous twist", and supposedly unbeknown to May, the G-Wiz was replaced at the last moment with a 480bhp Ford Shelby Mustang. Members of the audience, many of whom filmed the tragedy on mobile phone cameras, have reported that the trolley reached a speed of "almost 20mph" before it struck the skittles and toppled sideways in a rather pathetic way.
"I feared the worst," said Clarkson, who, even after the dust of the impact had settled, remained firmly rooted to the spot, smirking to himself. "But then James opened his eyes and said, 'You bastard', and those two words told me we'd get him back after a minute or so."
Richard Hammond, who was involved in a similar accident involving a jet-powered trolley some weeks ago, and who claimed to present the popular Sunday-night TV show Songs of Praise with May and Clarkson, told reporters: "Riding around in a supermarket trolley is the sort of thing that drunken 22-year-old men on a stag night would do. Sadly, it's the sort of thing we would do as well." Half an hour later, he told them the same thing again.
However, within minutes of that paragraph being written, the real Richard Hammond rang this column and said, "I've heard about your trolley crash. That's pathetic. I hope you're not going to use it as an excuse to make some more cheap gags about my short-term memory loss, because it's been greatly exaggerated and anyway, I'm better now." Even after several hours he had not rung to repeat himself, so he might have a point, unless he simply forgot to call back.
"But while you're at it," Hammond continued, "You may as well make up some stuff about being depressed and being paid a billion pounds by the BBC. Everyone else does."
The director of the MPH show was quick to defend the stunt. "The trolley had been thoroughly tested," he said. "I've driven it, Tiff Needell has driven it, our researchers have driven it, the people who modified it have driven it and we didn't have a single mishap. In fact, the only person to have fallen out of it is James May. Every reasonable precaution was taken, but there can never be any sort of contingency for the unpredictable, ie just how bloody useless he is at anything involving speed and direction. I'm afraid he was the victim of his own incompetence."
Following the accident, the trolley was impounded by Sainsbury's, who were keen to establish how the event's organisers had come by it in the first place. They were dismissive of claims that it had been "bought for a pound" from a local branch, and were trying to establish the whereabouts of the simple security device normally bolted to the pushbar.
Elsewhere, countless people who have never driven a shopping trolley in their lives would have appeared on national television and radio, given half a chance, to say something along the lines of, "It's idiotic to think that anyone can just jump into a Sainsbury's trolley with no formal training and steer it into 10 giant comedy skittles at this sort of speed. The people who normally drive these things are very drunk and aiming at the bollards erected around local roadworks."
This morning, and following an exploratory X-ray, doctors at a leading London hospital downgraded May's injury from "a suspected fracture" to "nothing more than a sprain", although after they were given some free tickets to MPH they agreed to record it as "a very serious sprain, not the sort of thing most people have".
Inevitably, there have been calls from health and safety operatives for MPH to abandon stunts such as human 10-pin bowling, but the show's organiser, Chris Cash, remained bullish about the future. "James May is a grown man. If he gets in to a supermarket trolley that Jeremy Clarkson is going to push across the arena with a 480bhp car, then he needs his head X-rayed, not his wrist."
As seen on TV: Top Gear man suffers 'very serious' injury
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 11/11/2006
Second high-speed crash causes health and safety panic, writes James May
James May, the other bloke off Top Gear and co-host of this year's MPH '06 live motoring theatre, was last night said to be "severely hacked off" in his local pub after sustaining a suspected fractured wrist in a high-speed supermarket trolley crash.
May, 43, was performing a live stunt for the MPH extravaganza, billed as "human 10-pin bowling". In this, he attempted to guide a modified shopping trolley, fitted with rudimentary steering, into 10 giant rubber skittles on the opposite side of the stage after being propelled by his co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson, driving a low-powered G-Wiz electric city car.
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However, in what the show's script described as a "humorous twist", and supposedly unbeknown to May, the G-Wiz was replaced at the last moment with a 480bhp Ford Shelby Mustang. Members of the audience, many of whom filmed the tragedy on mobile phone cameras, have reported that the trolley reached a speed of "almost 20mph" before it struck the skittles and toppled sideways in a rather pathetic way.
"I feared the worst," said Clarkson, who, even after the dust of the impact had settled, remained firmly rooted to the spot, smirking to himself. "But then James opened his eyes and said, 'You bastard', and those two words told me we'd get him back after a minute or so."
Richard Hammond, who was involved in a similar accident involving a jet-powered trolley some weeks ago, and who claimed to present the popular Sunday-night TV show Songs of Praise with May and Clarkson, told reporters: "Riding around in a supermarket trolley is the sort of thing that drunken 22-year-old men on a stag night would do. Sadly, it's the sort of thing we would do as well." Half an hour later, he told them the same thing again.
However, within minutes of that paragraph being written, the real Richard Hammond rang this column and said, "I've heard about your trolley crash. That's pathetic. I hope you're not going to use it as an excuse to make some more cheap gags about my short-term memory loss, because it's been greatly exaggerated and anyway, I'm better now." Even after several hours he had not rung to repeat himself, so he might have a point, unless he simply forgot to call back.
"But while you're at it," Hammond continued, "You may as well make up some stuff about being depressed and being paid a billion pounds by the BBC. Everyone else does."
The director of the MPH show was quick to defend the stunt. "The trolley had been thoroughly tested," he said. "I've driven it, Tiff Needell has driven it, our researchers have driven it, the people who modified it have driven it and we didn't have a single mishap. In fact, the only person to have fallen out of it is James May. Every reasonable precaution was taken, but there can never be any sort of contingency for the unpredictable, ie just how bloody useless he is at anything involving speed and direction. I'm afraid he was the victim of his own incompetence."
Following the accident, the trolley was impounded by Sainsbury's, who were keen to establish how the event's organisers had come by it in the first place. They were dismissive of claims that it had been "bought for a pound" from a local branch, and were trying to establish the whereabouts of the simple security device normally bolted to the pushbar.
Elsewhere, countless people who have never driven a shopping trolley in their lives would have appeared on national television and radio, given half a chance, to say something along the lines of, "It's idiotic to think that anyone can just jump into a Sainsbury's trolley with no formal training and steer it into 10 giant comedy skittles at this sort of speed. The people who normally drive these things are very drunk and aiming at the bollards erected around local roadworks."
This morning, and following an exploratory X-ray, doctors at a leading London hospital downgraded May's injury from "a suspected fracture" to "nothing more than a sprain", although after they were given some free tickets to MPH they agreed to record it as "a very serious sprain, not the sort of thing most people have".
Inevitably, there have been calls from health and safety operatives for MPH to abandon stunts such as human 10-pin bowling, but the show's organiser, Chris Cash, remained bullish about the future. "James May is a grown man. If he gets in to a supermarket trolley that Jeremy Clarkson is going to push across the arena with a 480bhp car, then he needs his head X-rayed, not his wrist."
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