The Duke of Edinburgh In Car Accident at Sandringham: January 17, 2019


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48 hours later and Philip is driving again without an protection officer and without a seat belt. Bad optics here. Any good will Philip had when he retired from public life is going to go up in smoke.

It is so difficult to get an elderly person to surrender the car keys!
It's like they consider it giving up on life, or something.
 
I’m sure the family was very shaken up by that car crash. The mans car flipped over on the hood and then landed on its side. The whole thing could’ve ended his life or the other ladies and baby. But who have the guts to tell Philip to get somewhere and sit the hell down and give up the keys? Nobody, other than his doctors. It’s gonna take a serious illness for him to not be able to drive anymore. The same for The Queen.
 
Instead of telling Philip no longer to drive, his car from Balmoral was driven to Sandringham the following day so he was able to drive again asap.
 
In the UK the law states that seat belts must be worn and there is a £500 fine for failing to wear one, and yet both the Queen and Prince Philip regularly drive without wearing one. In fact, just hours after the accident, the Queen was seen driving without one. They are not above the law but regular flaunt it. Well, hell mend the two of them.
 
We do not know who caused the accident. The car Philip was driving was probably reinforced so for it to be flipped over means that there was an element of force used against it. That force is usually caused by speed.

Until the police have determined who is at fault why should Philip give up his licence now and then be ruled not the driver at fault.

In one of the articles on this story there are figures of the number of drivers in the UK with licences and thus with their own independence and there are over 100,000 over 100 with 4 aged 107.

Philip would have been tested last year - as he has been every year since he turned 70.

The Queen is the only one who doesn't require a drivers licence - just like she doesn't have a passport.

A number of the royal cars have lap seatbelts and not shoulder seat belts and for some people that is even what they are told to have (a friend of mine is only required to wear a lap belt due to health reasons so it always look like she isn't wearing a seat belt but she is).

The British legal system will deal with this and not the general public. Trial by media isn't fair to anyone and only leads to miscarriages of justice, destruction of reputations and even suicides.

I would prefer to wait until the investigation is complete rather than rush to judgement that an elderly man was to blame. He may have been, but so may the other driver.
 
Bit strong to wish hell on them IMO.

Noticeably the Queen was spotted today wearing a seatbelt so clearly, even if ONLY for PR purpose, HM is conscious of trying to to the right thing.

I think what none of us will truly understand is that the Queen and Philip are so use to driving around private estates on private roads that sometimes I suspect they are travelling on private estates then public roads to get to another part of the private estates without really noticing that they are and therefore need to wear seatbelts etc as they are on public highways not private roads. Of course many would argue they should for their own safety always wear a seatbelt but they are not legally required to do so on private roads.

At the moment no one really knows what caused the accident. I was in a car accident not that long ago - I went into the back of a car in front of me that was pulling out into a roundabout, many would say it was my fault but actually the car in front pulled out into the roundabout then braked suddenly - I was lucky in that a police car happened to be sitting on the roundabout in exactly the right place to see that actually it wasn't my fault and as such it wasn't my fault in the eyes of the insurance. As many family / friends pointed out if that police car hasn't of been there I would have been the one blamed as I had gone into the back of someone. My point is - no one bar Philip and the people in the other car know what happened really so I think everyone needs to dial back the blaming Philip argument. If this happened to William or Harry would we be saying they should have their licence taken off them? Beatrice had two accidents in London in a short space of time a few years back - didn't see people saying she should have her licence taken off her- The fact is accidents happen all the time it just a fact that with so many cars on the road there will be some accidents.
 
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The woman in the car basically said the royals have ignored her. This is such a bad look and Philip out here driving without his seat belt on. My goodness.


This cover story is so bad. They need to get ahead of this because right now their PR seems lost.
 
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The woman in the car basically said the royals have ignored her. This is such a bad look and Philip out here driving without his seat belt on. My goodness.

Yes despite the palace claiming that Philip was in contact with them one of the women has said it's not true and that they haven't even had so much as an apology.
 
The woman in the car basically said the royals have ignored her. This is such a bad look and Philip out here driving without his seat belt on. My goodness.

I saw that article and yeah this looks bad. The queen has immunity from civil and criminal prosecution I believe but she realizes this can become a PR nightmare for the BRF so she is publicly seen wearing a seat belt.
 
Yes despite the palace claiming that Philip was in contact with them one of the women has said it's not true and that they haven't even had so much as an apology.

An apology can be taken as an admission of fault. In Queensland there are Acts of Parliament that specify an apology cannot be taken an admission of fault. No reason though why there cannot be a call to ask how the other person is.

I think there are a number of studies that show the largest group that are involved in motor vehicle accidents are young men. Are the critics suggesting they shouldn’t be allowed to drive. If an older person (any older person) satisfies the DVLC that they are a safe driver then I don’t see why they should not be able to. I know the Queen doesn’t have a licence but I think (a) she should and (b) this retesting should also apply to her.

I’ve said before, I think it’s bad for for members of the Royal Family not to wear seat belts even when driving on private land. If the Queen wears a lap belt then the Palace should point that out, instead every engagement the Queen turns up to it looks as if she isn’t wearing a seat belt - whether she is she isn’t it sets a bad example and looks as if the Royal Family are saying “the law doesnt apply to us”. I was also not crazy at photos last year (I think it was) showing Viscount Severn behind the wheel of a car on the private estate.
 
My car was once hit by a car that blew through a stop sign at a minimum 45mph--because the sun was in his eyes. That driver was 17 or 18 years old. I had my 14 month old daughter in the car. My seat belt and her car seat saved us from any serious injuries. Should that young man have lost his license because he failed to see the stop sign and a baby was in the car he hit?

My brother's best friend's mother was killed in a car accident because of sun glare-none of the three drivers involved was elderly.

That same accident may have happened with sun glare even if the driver were 27 rather than 97, especially since it is a known dangerous section of road with many serious accidents.

They did change something-they voted to reduce the speed limit that they'd been thinking about for while but the high profile of Prince Philip made it finally happen.

Re: the DoE driving today - I think there's possibly an issue of humility & taste. I accept he was dazzled by the low sun but he caused a serious accident that could easily have killed people. Those people have been through hell & it must be galling to see pics of the DoE out driving his other Freelander today. When I had my crash (caused by someone else who was convicted) I had my children in the back & it was weeks before I could get behind the wheel again. I was given a temporary replacement car by my insurance company but I felt sick every time I drove anywhere & was fearful whenever my children were in anyone else's car.

Maybe I'm just being over sensitive because I've been through it but I think it would have been better for the DoE to keep a low profile until after the police investigation into whether he'll be charged with an offence. If he wants to drive, he has private roads out of sight.
Perhaps Prince Philip felt if he didn't get behind the wheel pretty quickly, he may never drive again. I am sure if it was obvious to the Police that Prince Philip had been negligent they would have taken his licence, issued a summons and we'd all see what happens in court. But they didn't.

The woman in the car basically said the royals have ignored her. This is such a bad look and Philip out here driving without his seat belt on. My goodness.


This cover story is so bad. They need to get ahead of this because right now their PR seems lost.
The first report said he walked over and asked if everyone was alright. Now the other driver is headlining in every paper and Philip is a monster. Worse, other gutless wonders are coming forward and saying hit either hit them or nearly hit them. But, they never reported it.

It is bad optics . . . the only thing the uninformed mob is missing is its pitchforks!
 
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Prince Philip and The Queen can help calm things down by inviting the two ladies and baby that was in the crash to Sandringham to help wish them well and express some face to face sympathy over what happened. A few photos would help too. Also, they could invite Mr. Warne to express an official thanks for pulling Prince Philip out of the car.

The royals and Palace officials need to start using their brains now.
 
They just need to get ahead of it. I am not surprised the woman is talking because the press are in her face making it easy. Prince Philip driving around without a seatbelt and being talked to by the police is not helping matters either. The whole things is a bit of a mess.
 
Prince Philip and The Queen can help calm things down by inviting the two ladies and baby that was in the crash to Sandringham to help wish them well and express some face to face sympathy over what happened.

They shouldn't do this. Now these women try to receive more money or put blame solely on Philip.
All contacts should be after court's decision.
 
I am just amazed that a Kia could t-bone an armoured Freelander so hard it spun and rolled over twice. It sounds crazy.

I've wondered the same thing about the speed limit. Especially after reading in "Our Queen" about how Philip has posted the speed limit for the Sandringham estate at 38 kph (23.6121 MPH. Yes, I had to look it up). Then again, that might not apply to any public road that runs through the estate.

That Kia had to be clipping along the road at a pretty good pace to impact that Freelander so hard.
Instead of telling Philip no longer to drive, his car from Balmoral was driven to Sandringham the following day so he was able to drive again asap.
Unfortunate that he’s been enabled to continue on as if there’s no need to pause and consider whether allowing him to continue to drive is a good idea.
We do not know who caused the accident. The car Philip was driving was probably reinforced so for it to be flipped over means that there was an element of force used against it. That force is usually caused by speed.
...
Let’s not ignore basic physics as we conjecture about what caused this crash. SUVs have a higher rate of rollover crashes (including solo rollover crashes) than sedans because of their higher center of gravity, thus the Kia’s speed is likely far less significant than the fact that the Kia was a smaller vehicle and hit the SUV lower down. SUV Rollover Risks Phillip is very lucky he pulled in front of a light weight Kia - if it had been a heavier, larger, vehicle the consequences to him could have been far worse.
Phillip said the sun glare blinded him - suggesting that he simply did not see the Kia traveling on the public road that he pulled in front of, rather than that he saw the Kia but miscalculated how fast it was going.
 
They shouldn't do this. Now these women try to receive more money or put blame solely on Philip.
All contacts should be after court's decision.

I agree with this. From a legal stand point the last thing they should be doing is interacting with these women.
 
Palace officials are digging themselves in a hole here. At first, it was made to seem like Prince Philip personally reached out to the ladies and wished them well. As it turns out, that’s not what happened at all. A police family liaison called her.
 
An apology can be taken as an admission of fault. In Queensland there are Acts of Parliament that specify an apology cannot be taken an admission of fault. No reason though why there cannot be a call to ask how the other person is.

That's what I was thinking to. She even says that she understood he was advised not to apologize. And furthermore she shares that they did see Philip's car and as far as we now know Philip didn't see them. So, while he should have seen them, they did see but thought he would stop and braked too late.

Moreover, there was a call by a policy family liaison officer. I assume the BRF referred to that call but it seems the message was conveyed quite messy. A personal call would have been nice but I don't think she would necessarily have expected that if they had run into another car.

I think there are a number of studies that show the largest group that are involved in motor vehicle accidents are young men. Are the critics suggesting they shouldn’t be allowed to drive. If an older person (any older person) satisfies the DVLC that they are a safe driver then I don’t see why they should not be able to. I know the Queen doesn’t have a licence but I think (a) she should and (b) this retesting should also apply to her.

I’ve said before, I think it’s bad for for members of the Royal Family not to wear seat belts even when driving on private land. If the Queen wears a lap belt then the Palace should point that out, instead every engagement the Queen turns up to it looks as if she isn’t wearing a seat belt - whether she is she isn’t it sets a bad example and looks as if the Royal Family are saying “the law doesnt apply to us”. I was also not crazy at photos last year (I think it was) showing Viscount Severn behind the wheel of a car on the private estate.

I fully agree with all of the above.
 
It is just wrong. He shouldn't be driving at all and I haven't felt so angry for a long time. Other people have put it more eloquently but we're talking people's lives and what could have been a more serious incident. It's a wake up call that he and those that surround him need to hear - time to stop driving!!
 
The whole thing seems to being handled badly and to have him being seen driving again and without a seatbelt has made things worse.

Y’all know Prince Philip was very close to killing himself or the other party in the next car, right? This is bad.
 
This is all remarkably tone-deaf on the royal family's part. Either Philip doesn't give a flying fig for public opinion (what I suspect) and/or no one was able to make him see reason. It's not so much the driving again so quickly, although the optics of that are questionable, as it is the driving again so quickly without a PPO, and without a seatbelt. The combination just screams arrogance and lack of concern for anyone's opinion or convenience except his own. That may not be the way he feels, but it's certainly the impression that is being given.

I'm really surprised that the palace PR haven't done a better job managing this, and I'm disappointed in the overall impression Philip is giving. Being the crusty and irreverent consort is all well and good, but being an arrogant horse's patootie is not.
 
My car shrieks like a banshee if the seat belt isn't fastened.
Is this not the case in the UK?
 
My car shrieks like a banshee if the seat belt isn't fastened.
Is this not the case in the UK?

I know, right? I suspect it is the same in the UK but maybe he had his alarm disconnected or maybe he does like some people here and fastens the belt before he sits down so it's behind him instead of around him.
 
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This is all remarkably tone-deaf on the royal family's part. Either Philip doesn't give a flying fig for public opinion (what I suspect) and/or no one was able to make him see reason. It's not so much the driving again so quickly, although the optics of that are questionable, as it is the driving again so quickly without a PPO, and without a seatbelt. The combination just screams arrogance and lack of concern for anyone's opinion or convenience except his own. That may not be the way he feels, but it's certainly the impression that is being given.
I do understand the driving again quickly. It's an advice that's been given quite regularly, to do whatever it was that ended badly (whether it be falling of a horse or having an accident) sooner rather than later as in that way that initial fear is gone. In this case, it would have been much wiser had the prince wanted to heed that advice to do so on his own grounds (as he has plenty, unlike the rest of us).

Other than that, yes, it seems that he doesn't care about public opinion at all - hopefully he does care about the safety of others when deciding on whether it is responsible to be behind the wheel or not. I wonder what his wife, children and grandchildren think of all of this...
 
The whole thing seems to being handled badly and to have him being seen driving again and without a seatbelt has made things worse.

Y’all know Prince Philip was very close to killing himself or the other party in the next car, right? This is bad.

I don’t envy the household’s task this week.
 
This is becoming a mess that Olivia Pope from Scandal couldn't "handle". And the police didn't acquit itself by letting Philip off with a warning. And when the results of the investigation are published - and it clears Philip - will the public have confidence in the findings or will it believe the royals leaned on the police to exonerate him?
 
Any chance this women had of being reached out to ended when she posed for a magazine literally holding up a cast to the camera lens, wiping away (invisible) tears from her eyes, and telling a sob story about her divorce. "Ignored and rejected?" Poppycock.

Anyone who has been in a car accident can surely relate to the horror she felt but I feared my eyes were going to get lost in the back of my head reading that one.

I especially grimaced at the the point where she described the ongoing trauma she is experiencing because of her "terror" that she was "forgotten about" whilst "trapped" in her vehicle because everyone rushed to help Philip before her. The baby was presumably not readily visible, and anyone arriving on the scene of an accident with two seemingly healthy younger woman in an upright vehicle and another victim, visibly very elderly, in an inverted vehicle, would certainly rush to the elderly man.
 
In the UK the law states that seat belts must be worn and there is a £500 fine for failing to wear one, and yet both the Queen and Prince Philip regularly drive without wearing one. In fact, just hours after the accident, the Queen was seen driving without one. They are not above the law but regular flaunt it. Well, hell mend the two of them.

The Queen is above the law. She doesn't have a licence and yet has been allowed to drive on UK roads since she became Queen. She doesn't have a passport and yet is able to travel freely around the world.

They wear lap belts I believe on many occasions.
 
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