The Duke of Edinburgh has been involved in a 2-crash that sent his Land Rover Freelander 2 flipping on the ground and on its side. At the time of the accident, Prince Philip was at the wheel.
He told the police that he had been blinded by the sun, The Sun reports. The crash occurred at a junction on the A149 in Norfolk, near Sandringham Estate, which is the Queen’s private home. The Prince was coming out of a side road when he was T-boned by a Kia rolling down at approximately 60 mph.
Inside the Kia was a female driver, a female passenger and a child strapped in a carseat. Both adult women needed to be taken to the hospital for minor injuries and have since been released. The child wasn’t injured and neither was the Prince, as the Buckingham Palace confirms.
The Duke was treated at the scene and allowed to go home, where he will remain under supervision for 48 hours. Despite his age and some older health issues with a hip and his kidneys, he is otherwise healthy. However, his accident will undoubtedly restart the conversation on whether there should be an age limit to driving.
Barrister Roy Warne was also driving on the A149 when the accident happened and he was the first one on the scene. “It was frightening to see,” Warne says of the crash.
He first rushed to the Kia and took out the 10-month baby and checked on the women, and then ran to the Land Rover, which was lying on the driver side, after first being flipped on the passenger side.
At first, he didn’t recognize the Duke. Warne tells The Sun he asked the elderly driver if he could move his legs, so he would extract him through the smashed sunroof. “My legs! Where should I put my legs?,” the Duke asked him, which is when he recognized him. He helped the Duke out of the wreck and noticed that he was unharmed. Still, he was shocked, confused and apparently embarrassed at what had happened.
“I looked down and had the Prince’s blood on my hands,” Warne continues. “All I could think is, thank goodness there wasn’t more.”
As a routine operation, both Prince Philip and the female driver were given breathalyzer tests, and both passed with flying colors.
At 97, Prince Philip is the oldest male British Royal ever. He’s been retired from public life since August 2017 but continues to go out driving, horse- or carriage-riding, enjoying a life more or less out of the spotlight.
