''I was close to being dead'' says Top Gear star

LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) Television presenter Richard Hammond has revealed he thought he was going to die after his high-speed smash in a jet-powered car last month.

In his first interview since the accident, the ''Top Gear'' co-presenter talked about the moments after he crashed his Vampire dragster as he accelerated to 288 mph while filming a feature for the BBC show at an RAF airfield near York.

''I was upside down inhaling a field. My nose and eyes were full of earth. I'd gone ploughing on my head,'' Hammond told yesterday's Daily Mirror.

''It was 50/50 what was going to happen. I may have been dead, I may not have woken up.'' Hammond, 36, said he lost consciousness shortly afterwards and next remembers waking up in Leeds General Infirmary.

''Doctors use a point system. Fifteen is normal, three is a flatline. I was a three. I was that close to being dead,'' he said.

The accident left Hammond with serious brain injuries but he said he was now on course to make a full recovery.

However, he said when he emerged from his coma, his mind was like an ''office that had been utterly ransacked'' and he suffered terrible pain.

His behaviour became childlike and he said he became obsessed with Lego and the card game Top Trumps which he used to get his brain working again.

''I was basically mad as a bag of snakes. I'm sure there were phases when I was utterly bonkers,'' the popular presenter, nicknamed ''Hamster'', told the Mirror from a secret location where he is staying with his wife and two children.

He now says he is well enough to return home.

''I'm so bloody lucky I can't believe it,'' he added.

The crash is being investigated by health and safety officials but Hammond said all safety precautions had been taken with the car.

''I was actually quite good at driving it,'' he said. ''But clearly something went wrong and the day didn't turn out as we planned ... to put it mildly!'' REUTERS PDS RAI0415