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97-year-old UK’s Prince Philip Escapes Car Crash Unhurt

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A crash involving the Duke of Edinburgh happened a day before the speed limit on the road was set to be reduced.

Prince Philip, 97, was not injured in the crash on the A149 near the Queen’s Sandringham estate on Thursday.

Witnesses said the duke’s Land Rover overturned during the collision, which happened as he emerged from a driveway.

Norfolk County Council is due to discuss safety on the road – described as a “rat run” by one local – and is expected to reduce the speed limit.

The authority is expected to lower the limit from 60mph to 50mph and approve installing average speed cameras on the road.

Witnesses said the duke was “conscious but very, very shocked and shaken” as he was helped out of the vehicle.

A man who helped to free him from the crash said he saw the Land Rover “careering” across the road.

Norfolk Police said that two women in the other car involved in the crash – a 28-year-old and a 45-year-old – were taken to hospital to be treated for minor injuries and have since been released.

Officers confirmed a nine-month-old baby boy in the other car was uninjured.

The force said it would be “inappropriate to speculate on the causes of the collision until an investigation is carried out”.

Duke of Edinburgh on 24 June 2018Prince Philip, 97, regularly drives in the Sandringham area

 

There were 40 crashes – five of which were fatal – on the A149, which is the main route along the Norfolk coast, in the six years from 2012-2018.

A council report recommends lowering the maximum speed limit and installing average speed cameras along the road between the Knights Hill roundabout and Snettisham – an idea originally proposed in 2015.

The average speed camera system would cover the A149 from the junction with the A148, about two and a half miles south of the crash scene, to Snettisham, six miles to the north.

Residents have previously raised concerns about a number of junctions along the A149, which is used by more than 15,000 vehicles a day.

Norfolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Lorne Green, who lives in nearby Snettisham, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he had been travelling on the road for “40 years on and off” and had “seen a tremendous build up of traffic”, especially where it meets with Station Road and Beach Road, about ten minutes from the crash site.

“I really feel that I am taking my life into my hands whenever I have to cross the road at that junction,” he said.

A woman, who did not want to be named, said younger drivers often used the road as “a rat run”.

The BBC’s Nicholas Witchell says the Duke regularly drives in the Sandringham area

 

Prince Phillip is back at Sandringham, where he has been staying with the Queen since Christmas, and has seen a doctor as a precaution.

Norfolk Police said officers were called to the scene shortly before 15:00 GMT when a Land Rover and a Kia were involved in a collision.

The force said it was standard policy to breath test drivers involved in collisions and both had provided negative readings.

The driver of the Kia suffered cuts, while the passenger sustained an arm injury, police said. Both were treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in nearby King’s Lynn.

Map of where the Sandringham accident happened

A woman who drove past the crash scene said she saw an ambulance and “a heavy police presence”.

She added: “I saw a black, 4×4 type car on its side and me and my son were like ‘oh my word, that doesn’t look good’.

“Obviously it looked quite smashed in. I’m quite amazed he [the duke] is OK actually.”

Prince Philip retired from public life in August 2017 having spent decades supporting the Queen and attending events for his own charities and organisations.

He did not attend the Royal Family’s Christmas Day service at Sandringham last month.

Prince Philip crash: “People stopped to help” – eyewitness

Analysis: ‘Surprise that the duke still drives’

By BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond

There will be several sharp intakes of breath over this accident.

The duke is five months short of his 98th birthday. By anyone’s standards, getting away from an accident like that unhurt is pretty impressive.

There will be some surprise that the duke still drives himself on public roads. But he has always been fiercely independent, and would have resisted any suggestion that he be denied the right to drive himself.

And there will now be an investigation into the circumstances of the accident. It might be that the duke is about to be persuaded to give up the wheel.

BBC
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