Frantic royal call to victim in Philip crash
STAFF working for Britain’s royal family finally got a goodwill message to one of Prince Philip’s car crash victims last night – three days after the incident in which one woman broke her wrist.
Amid mounting anger at his failure to apologise to the two women injured, Buckingham Palace said contact had at last been made.
After a failure to get in touch last week, his Queen Elizabeth’s private office scrambled to make amends over the weekend by trying to call the victims, yet was still unable to confirm if Prince Philip had actually apologised.
The women and a nine-month-old baby survived when 97-year-old Philip drove into the path of their car on Thursday, sending his Land Rover somersaulting.
Emma Fairweather, whose wrist was broken, said: ‘I’m lucky to be alive and he hasn’t even said sorry. It has been such a traumatic time and I would have expected more of the Royal Family.’
Prince Philip took delivery of a replacement Land Rover less than 24 hours after the crash, and on Saturday he was back behind the wheel. He was not wearing a seat belt, earning him a rebuke from police.
Reports say Ms Fairweather has come under huge pressure to ‘keep quiet’, being urged ‘more than ten times’ to be discreet by police liaison officers.
Ms Fairweather, 46, told the Sunday Mirror: ‘I’m in a lot of pain. It would mean the world to me if Prince Philip said sorry but I have no idea if he’s sorry at all. What would it have taken for him and the Queen to send me a card and a bunch of flowers?’
Royal sources insisted the palace had made strenuous attempts to get in touch with the victims.
Ms Fairweather was the passenger in the Kia being driven by her 28-year-old friend, whose baby boy was strapped in the back seat.
As they drove near Sandringham, Norfolk, Prince Philip – who said he had been dazzled by the low sun – pulled out of a side road and they struck his Land Rover side-on. His armoured car spun, flipped and careered across the carriageway, while the Kia flew into a hedge.
‘I’m lucky to be alive’