Top Gear's Richard Hammond injured

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Just read the following on the ninemsn website:

Richard Hammond, a presenter for the BBC's Top Gear automobile television series, has improved to a stable condition after being involved in a car accident which saw him being airlifted to hospital.

The 36-year-old television presenter was filming for the programme at a disused airfield in York, central England, when the accident happened and was airlifted to a hospital in nearby Leeds.

He was involved in a high-speed car crash while filming an apparent attempt to break Britain's land speed record in what was described as a "rocket powered dragster" that travelled at speeds close to 482.8 kilometres per hour.

The current British land speed record is 300.3 miles per hour, held by Colin Fallows, who set the record in 2000.

A former firefighter at the scene said the accident had happened on the last attempt of the day, which saw the car veer to the right, triggering the deployment of one of the parachutes.

The car, however, went onto the grass, and "spun over and over" before eventually resting upside down and "dug in" to the grass, Dave Ogden of Event Fire Services said.

Hammond was cut free, placed in a neck brace and onto a stretcher before an air ambulance arrived to take him to hospital.