Former Top Gear host James May hospitalised after vehicle stunt goes wrong, hits wall at 120km/h

  • 14/08/2022
May braked too late and jackknifed into a rock wall 120km/h
May braked too late and jackknifed into a rock wall 120km/h Photo credit: Twitter @MrJamesMay

Former Top Gear host James May has been hospitalised after a vehicle stunt went wrong and the car he was driving at 120km/h smashed into a wall. 

The Sun reported that 59-year-old May was filming at the time of the accident in a stunt where he and his co-stars sped rally cars along a tunnel towards a rock wall in Norway.

But it was more complicated than that, the tunnel's lights only came on as the car sped through the tunnel - giving only three seconds for May to react before he reached the rock wall.

The Sun reported May braked too late and jackknifed into a rock wall at 120km/h.

It's understood that May was helped out of his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 by medical staff before being taken to hospital for x-rays and a brain scan.

A source close to May told The Sun "it looked extremely worrying at first".

"James smashed his head quite hard in the impact, and was bloodied by it," they said. 

"He was complaining about pain in his back and neck."

On Saturday, May shared his thanks for the "funny jokes" he received following his crash. 

"It was a while back, not that bad, and I'm perfectly OK."