The Duke of Edinburgh has been involved in a car crash while driving near the Queen’s Sandringham estate, Buckingham Palace has said.
HRH Prince Philip was driving his Land Rover down an estate driveway onto the A149 shortly before 3pm on Thursday, January 17, when a collision caused his vehicle to flip.
Eyewitnesses said they had to help the 97-year-old out of the Land Rover, which had overturned during the crash.
The people who were able to go to his aid also told the BBC he was conscious but very, very shocked and shaken.
The Duke of Edinburgh was given a breath test after the collision, as is police policy, to make sure drivers involved in a car accident are not above the drink-drive limit.
Both Prince Philip and the other driver were breathalysed. They both tested negative, Norfolk Police said.
According to Kensington Palace, Prince Philip is back at Sandringham and has seen a doctor as a precaution.
However, the two women who were in the other car – a Kia – involved in the collision, needed hospital treatment but have since been discharged. Pictures were released on local radio, KL.FM.
A woman who drove past the crash scene – near Babingley, a small village north of Kings Lynn, Norfolk – at around 15:40, told the BBC she saw an ambulance and ‘a heavy police presence’.
The women, who remained anonymous, added:
I was just going down the A149 … and saw a lot of blue flashing lights ahead. 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’.
Luckily it was just sort of on the side of the road, the road wasn’t closed in any way. Obviously it looked quite smashed in. I’m quite amazed he [the duke] is okay actually.
Norfolk police released a statement saying:
The male driver of the Land Rover was uninjured. The female driver of the Kia suffered cuts while the female passenger sustained an arm injury, both requiring hospital treatment.
We can confirm both casualties from the Kia have been treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn and have since been discharged.
Nick Cobb, a Babingley resident, was driving past with his 16-year-old daughter Emily, ten minutes after the collision, when they spotted an overturned car about 100 yards from their house.
Cobb told the BBC:
The [Land Rover] was on its side on a private road. The other car was well into the hedge on the opposite side of the road.
There was lots of debris in the road, lots of glass and lots of other cars, some police cars, some from the Sandringham Estate and about six ordinary looking cars that looked as though they had stopped to help.
The speed limit on the stretch of road is now expected to be reduced at a council meeting later today.
Norfolk County Council was due to discuss safety issues on the A149 before the crash took place yesterday, but the authority is expected to lower the maximum speed limit from 60mph to 50mph, and approve installing average speed cameras on the road.
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A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.