Prince Philip undergoes hospital checks after car crash

The Duke of Edinburgh has undergone hospital checks on his doctor’s advice following his car accident in which two women received minor injuries and a baby escaped unhurt.

Buckingham Palace said Prince Philip, 97, went to the local hospital near the Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Friday, but was found to have no injuries of concern.

Norfolk police are investigating Thursday’s accident and said “appropriate action will be taken”.

In a statement, the palace said: “On doctor’s advice, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Queen Elizabeth hospital in King’s Lynn this morning for a precautionary check-up. This confirmed His Royal Highness had no injuries of concern. The Duke has returned to Sandringham.” Philip is also said to have been in contact privately with the two women who were injured, and exchanged “well-wishes”.

As Philip recovered at Sandringham on Friday, further details emerged of the collision which left him “very shaken and shocked” , but otherwise uninjured.

Roy Warne, 75, who was driving home, described seeing the prince’s Land Rover Freelander tumbling across the road after the collision, as he pulled out of the B1439 near the Queen’s Norfolk estate on to the A149.

The car flipped on to its side after colliding with a Kia carrying two women and a nine-month-old baby. The women sustained minor injuries and required hospital treatment, but were later discharged, police said.

Both drivers were breath-tested and provided negative readings.

Norfolk police confirmed the baby boy in the Kia was uninjured.

A spokesman said: “The driver of the Kia, a 28-year-old woman, suffered cuts to her knee, while the passenger, a 45-year-old woman, sustained a broken wrist. Both casualties were treated at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in King’s Lynn and were discharged last night.

“As is standard procedure with injury collisions, the incident will be investigated and any appropriate action taken. We are aware of the public interest in this case, however, as with any other investigation, it would be inappropriate to speculate on the causes of the collision until an investigation is carried out.”

Warne told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he and another man helped free the baby from the first vehicle. Warne then helped get the prince out of his wrecked Land Rover.

“I was driving home and I saw a car come out from a side road and it rolled and ended up on the other side of the road, and there was a huge collision with another car,” he said.

He said the prince was trapped with his legs in the well of the car. “I asked him to move his left leg and that freed his right leg and then I helped him get out,” Warne said.

“The roof was where the window should have been because it was on its side. I think I helped him out through either the sunroof or the front windscreen, but I’m a bit blurred about that.”

Asked what the prince had said during the rescue, Warne replied: “I can’t remember, but it was nothing rude. He was obviously shaken, and then he went and asked if everyone else was all right.”

Prince Philip was able to stand and walk, but there was “a little blood”, he said, suggesting the prince had been cut, possibly by broken glass.

Warne said of the crash: “I think there’s no doubt that it was hit [by the prince’s car] . That’s my recollection.”

Of Prince Philip’s vehicle, he said: “I didn’t see it come from the side road. I saw it careering and tumbling across the road and ending up on the other side. It would take a massive force and it had rolled on the other side as well.”

The prince was taken to Sandringham, where he was seen by a doctor as a precautionary measure, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday.

On Friday, Norfolk county council, which coincidentally had been scheduled to discuss safety measures on the A149 where the collision took place, approved plans for the speed limit to be lowered from 60mph to 50mph and to implement an average speed monitoring system.

Older drivers must renew their driving licence every three years after they turn 70, but are not required to retake a driving test, and there are no laws on what age you must stop driving.

Buckingham Palace said: “The Duke of Edinburgh has a valid driving licence and completes all the usual DVLA processes.” It would not give further specifics on the prince’s licence.

The Queen does not have a driving licence, as she is exempt from the law and learned to drive with the army in 1945, when she was 19 and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service during the second world war.

Princess Anne, asked by journalists how her father was during an engagement at Edge Hill University in Lancashire on Friday, replied: “No idea. You know where I am? Same place as you.”

If the prince is thought to be liable, he could face prosecution for driving without due care and attention. The lawyer Nick Freeman, known as Mr Loophole, who has represented celebrities prosecuted over alleged traffic offences, said he believed Prince Philip could have a good defence if he blamed being blinded by the sun, as one witness claimed. He could also avoid prosecution by surrendering his licence, Freeman told the Press Association.

“If the sun was so low and right in your eyes, sometimes it is impossible to see, and that may well have been the case and that would afford him a defence,” Freeman said.

The Crown Prosecution Service would consider if it was in the public interest to prosecute, were the royal thought to be at fault, he added. “In my view, even if he’s found to be at fault, I think anyone advising him would contact the CPS and say, look, he now accepts he shouldn’t be driving and he’s going to undertake to surrender his licence and not drive again,” Freeman said.

But the decision had to be balanced with the wishes of those in the other car, he added. “They may say, ‘We don’t care who he is.’ They might think at his age, at his position, he could afford a driver. He’s got all the facilities, he shouldn’t be risking the lives of others. They might push for a prosecution,” Freeman said.