Behind the wheel AGAIN, Edward’s 10-year-old son
A RECENT appearance behind the wheel of the family Land Rover sparked controversy over whether or not children should be allowed to ‘drive’ on their parents’ laps.
Yesterday, Prince Edward’s ten-year-old son James was again pictured at the wheel as he joined other members of the Royal Family for a grouse shoot on the Queen’s Balmoral Estate in Aberdeenshire.
The young Viscount Severn – the Queen’s youngest grandchild – sat on his father’s knee as he steered the vehicle along country roads running through the vast grounds towards Loch Muick. Neither father nor son appeared to be wearing a seat belt, leading observers to question the Earl of Wessex’s judgement. Under the law, you do not need a provisional licence to drive on private land – though insurance companies would refuse to pay out if there was an accident.
The nearby visitor centre at The Spittal attracts 50,000 tourists a year and hundreds of hillwalkers were out and about along the route at the time.
One walker said: ‘It just needed someone to step out on to the track and the boy would be through the windscreen. Edward should know better, it’s bad form.’ In April, the young viscount was pictured driving – while sitting on an adult’s lap – in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
This drew comments from motoring organisations that, while clearly the law had not been broken, ‘cars were not playthings’ and could be ‘instruments of catastrophe’ in the wrong hands.
Both the Queen, 92, and the Duke of Edinburgh, 97, showed yesterday that age has not diminished their driving skills.
The monarch headed for the hills in her Range Rover and Prince Philip was spotted driving into Balmoral Castle.