Prince Philip's Car Crash Involved 28-Year-Old Woman and 9-Month-Old Baby: 'He Was Shaken'
It was “astonishing” that Prince Philip walked away from a car crash near his country estate in Norfolk on Thursday with no major injury, according to eyewitnesses.
The 97-year-old royal was uninjured, although those who were on-hand said there was blood at the scene after Philip overturned his Land Rover following a collision with a Kia driven by a 28-year-old woman with a 9-month-old baby in the backseat.
The Kia driver suffered cuts to her knee while a 45-year-old woman sitting in the passenger seat broke her wrist. The 9-month-old baby was uninjured in the incident, local police in Norfolk said Friday.
“It was an astonishing escape for everyone,” Roy Warne, a retired lawyer, told reporters outside his home in Norfolk on Friday, adding that it appeared as if there “had been extraordinarily severe injuries. But fortunately the injuries were very light. People could have been killed the impact must have been enormous.”
Warne was one of the first at the scene and said that he helped Philip from his car. He told BBC Radio Four‘s, Today program, “I asked him to move his left leg and that freed his right leg and I helped him to get out.”
Warne added, “He was obviously shaken and then he went and asked if everyone else [in the other car] was alright.”
Philip was able to stand. “There was a little bit of blood and one of the royal entourage gave me a wipe to wipe my hands,” Warne said.
“The person in the car behind me also stopped and the passenger from that car took the baby in his arms after we’d freed it from the baby harness,” Warne continued.
The others “were very shaken and one of them was the mother of the child and was very upset.”
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The duke was taken to Sandringham House — where he has been staying with Queen Elizabeth since before Christmas — and was assessed by doctors. Buckingham Palace said Friday that there was no update to the statement they released after the accident saying that he was “uninjured.”
“He’s fine,” a source told PEOPLE on Thursday.
The passengers from the other car were treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn and were discharged Thursday night, the police said in a statement.
They added, “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.”
Concerns have raised before about the stretch of road near Sandringham where the incident took place. On Friday, Norfolk county council, which had already been scheduled to meet to discuss safety measures, approved plans for the speed limit to be lowered from 60mph to 50mph. An average speed monitoring system will also be installed, reports the BBC.
Philip’s son Prince Charles, 70, who was thought to be at Scottish home Birkhall when the accident occurred and is being kept informed, showed concern about his father still driving about five years ago. Charles told a war veteran at the time who had mentioned that his father who is in a wheelchair still drove, “So does my father. I’m always worried.”
