'Unofficial' Cars of the Danish Royals
The speedy prince
Excerpt from the book:Frederik, by Poul Jørgensen, 1998
The Crown Prince got his driving license shortly before his 18 anniversary.
This day is a great one in a young man's life. To become eigtheen is the first real milestone, and this was the day where CP frederik was celebrated with full honour.
The CP of Denmark became 18: may 26, 1986, and he came of age, too. From this day on he must appear at the meeting of the ministers, and there was a huge official celebration that day.
A little less official was the start of the day. The CP was waked up by the sound of hurrays shouted beneath his windows, and members of the DR Girl Choir singing for him.
Many gifts had appeared in good time before the event, other at the anniversary day. But the best one, stood in the garage.
It had arrived the day before, and the CP had visited it at the shop. Now it was there. A Volvo 480 ES. A speedy Swedish sportscar, the first of it's kind in Denmark. The firm had provided two, so that the CP could chose the colour, a dark or a silver painted. CP Frederik chose the dark one.
The car had stayed the nigth and smiled to him before the birthday party. The driving license was OK, but the order was that he musn't touch the car before his 18th anniversary, so he could drive legally.
It must had been hard for him the day before, not to touch the car.
Later the prince would take revenge.
And CP Frederik looks to be very happy when he drives a car. And he drives fast. The "turbo prince" and the "ligthening prince" is some of the expressions used by the press.
He has had different types of cars. BMV M3, Volvo 740 to name a few, all speedy.
Often one may experience a car speeding by on the Danish roads, and who is sitting behide the steering wheel? Yes, the Crown Prince.
And this he hasn't from foreigners. His maternal grandmother, Queen Ingrid, didn't waste time letting herself be driven from one place to another, no, she took the wheels herself and was quite speedy.
The Crown Prince has often drivin right up to a speeding ticket at a police control block, but as he is beyond the law, he probably don't get one. Perhaps he has got a friendly scold from the police officer.
But QMII and P. Henrik dont look with approval on, that the CP and his brother drive too fast. They must, like any other citizen, keep inside the speed limits, and it's a royal scold, if they don't.
The CP is always followed by security guards, driving behind him. The CP is probably a good driver, and this the security guards have to be, too, if they want to stay in company. One or two times the press has written that the security guards had to give up following the CP. It has simply been too dangerous.....
His brother, Prince Joachim, has the impression, too, that a car is something used for getting from one place to another, as quickly as possibly.
Under a vacation in France in august 1988 at the Château Caïx, the two princes had a car accident.
CP Frederik and P Joachim was driving with two friends, who was at vacation too. Prince Joachim was behind the steering wheel in a little Peugot 205, which belonged the the Château. On the backseat sat the CP with leiutenant Peter Heering, and on the front seat besides Prince Joachim sat leiutenant Anders Molkte-Leth.
On a small curvy road running along the river Lot, near Chäteaux Caïx, prince Joachim lost control over the car near the vilalge Luzech.
The car rolled around, landing on the roof, and CP Frederik and Peter Heering were hurled out of the car, and both landed in the river.
Prince Joachim told about the accident, that he, on the narrow road, met a car who was driving directly against him, in the middle of the road. He meant that he had to pull the car to the right, to avoid a frontal car crash.
Out in the roadside, which were close to the side of the mountain, he lost control of the car. It turned about and went across the road and into a tree. The car rolled over and CP Frederik broke a collarbone, when he was hurled out of the crushed side window. Furthermore he got a gash in his forehead, which was sewed up in the hospital. CP Frederik had to stay the nigth at the hospital, as had his two friends, who got some minor scratches and pressed ribs. P. Joachim, who was lucky with only minor scratches and a gash in his arm, could go home after the treatment at the hospital.
The French police, who naturally was investgating the crash, dismissed that there was any possibility of speedy driving. They claimed it wasn't possibly to drive more than 90 km pr hour on that particular road.
From the outside you couldn't see that CP Frederik had broken his collarbone. he had no bandage and said that it had to heal naurally. He can be tough and ignore pain.
The two friend who had been in the car, weren't confrontated with the press. They had in a way no part of the accident.
It was hinted immediately that Prince Joachim had been speeding, which he denied categorically. A newspaper alleged that the Prince had been driving 150 km pr. hour, but no, 80 km pr. hour, or maximum 90 meant P. Joachim, it wasn't possibly to drive faster on that road. The road was narrow, only 4 meters in width, and very sineous.
Many asked to the car, but it wasn't showed. The sigth of it was reserved the French police and the automechanic, who had it brougth to his workshop.
It was when the Queen and the Prince saw the car, they realized how close it could have been to a real tragedy, and that Denmark no longer would have had two princes. It was obvious that the Regents had been touched, and that the car was a total wreck - in reality a heap of crumbled scrap.
Berlingske Tidende had a little after story. They could reveal that the accident happened at the exact day, when the French premier Michel Rocard gave his car driving compatriots a telling-off. He was very tired of the Frenchmen's hazardous driving, which every year killed 10,000, costing one eigth of the GNP.
The news about the princes' car crash didn't get to Denmark at first, because the Queen and the Court had decided, that they wouldn't inform the public before they had more specific information about it.
The accident incidently happened a year after, that CP Paulos of Greece, the cousin of the princes, had a close encounter with death in a similar accident in England, where he, after a car accident, dropped 15 meters down from a bridge.
Immediately after the accident it was discussed, whether the two princes ougth to be together in a car, that they should have driven in two different cars. Normally when the royal family travels, they don't travel together, but there are no fixed rules about this. The royal family has developed some unwritten rules throughout the years, which says that the Queen and her sons never travel in the same airplane.
Prince Joachim, who is next in the line for the throne, did fly with his mother when they travelled in Australia, though, when QMII and P Henrik was on an official visit there and Prince Joachim was working on an Australian farm as a part of his agricultural training. No rule without an exception, and here was one of them.
The accident in France was in itself a quite ordinary accident, one of those which happens a lot during daily life. But it was the Crown Prince and number two in line, who was involved and this increased the interest.
The Royal Family are outside the law according to the Constitution. But this only means that it put a much heavier pressure on the Royal Family, when it comes to keeping indside the law. It's a responsibility which they have to execute themselves.
The demands, the society put to the royal family, can often be tough. The public is interested in everything the royals do, and it migth be difficult to put a clear distinction between the private sphere, which ougth to stay private, and the public sphere.
An accident like this may be a private business, but as it happens on a public road, and as the informations is public thriugh the police reports it isn't possibly to keep it from the public eye.
And it's much better to counter myths and rumours by publishing the truth.
The debate about what the Royal Family could do, or not do, to bring itself into dangerous situations went high in Denmark, too.
Everything is dangerous. It's dangerous to walk on the street, because you migth be run over by a car, but how far should the measures go to be secure, is difficult to say.
It would be an impossibly situation if the Royal family had to be totally isolated. This would not be welcomed by several of it's members. And neither would we. Especially when the Queen has been able to keep the Royal House open to change, much more than in earlier times. To demand that the royal family oughn't travel together on a holliday, appears to be a too heavy an interference in their private life (Thor: notice, though, that at the coming trip to Greenland next week, the Queen and P. Henrik don't travel in the same plane as CP Frederik and CP Mary, who arrive a day later).