Shaken duke escapes car crash ‘unharmed’ Britain
The Duke of Edinburgh had to climb from the wreckage of his car yesterday following a crash in which his Land Rover overturned on its side.
The 97-year-old was said to look distraught and ‘‘quite shaken’’ after the accident, which left two other people in hospital with minor injuries.
He was yesterday recovering at Sandringham with the Queen by his side, after being checked by a doctor as a precaution and found to have no injuries.
Police confirmed that both the Duke and a female driver had been breathalysed at the scene and had not been drinking. A witness said the Queen’s husband appeared ‘‘shocked and shaken’’ after the crash, describing the fact he was uninjured as a ‘‘miracle’’.
The witness told The Daily Telegraph the Duke had seemed ‘‘quite distraught’’ in the aftermath of the incident, as police arrived at the scene.
He is understood to have been helped out of his vehicle, which had flipped over, trapping the driver’s door shut.
Photographs of the wreckage appeared to show that the car had been hit on its passenger side, with heavy scrapes and dents in what will have been a ‘‘reinforced’’ vehicle made for the Royal family.
A second car, a Kia, was left on a verge after the crash on the A149 near the Sandringham estate shortly before 3pm yesterday. Locals believed the duke was leaving a small private side road, intending to cross the A149 as he headed back to Sandringham when he collided with a car travelling south.
The duke was seen speaking to uniformed police as a group of about five people comforted one another near to the second car.
Ambulance crews were called to the scene where the B1439 joins the A road in a stretch known as Queen Elizabeth Way. A Buckingham Palace source confirmed that the Duke holds a current driving licence; the law requires those over 70 to reapply every three years.
An eyewitness who took a photograph of the scene moments after the crash and asked not to be named said: ‘‘The duke looked distraught. He looked quite shocked and shaken. It was extraordinary to see the Duke of Edinburgh. He looked at me as I approached the junction. Police were already on the scene, helping him. There’s a police station not far away.
‘‘The fact anybody walked away from that is incredible.
‘‘If a 30-year-old had walked away from that unhurt it would be a miracle.
‘‘For a 97-year-old man, that is something else.’’