After getting into a car accident last week, Prince Philip reportedly has no plans to step out of the driver’s seat, with a source telling Vanity Fair that the 97-year-old royal loves driving too much to change his ways.
“Philip is a law unto himself,” the source said. “The Queen and Prince Charles have pleaded with him to stop driving on public roads. Charles particularly thinks it’s too dangerous but Philip won’t be told. He loves the freedom he gets from being on the road, and he doesn’t want to be driven around.”
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The insider added that the Queen is likely the only person Philip would listen to when it comes to staying off the roads completely, and the monarch reportedly will not take that measure.
“There is really only one person he listens to and that’s the Queen, and while I know she has had words in the past, I’m not sure she would ever insist he stops driving,” the source said.
On Thursday, Philip was driving a Land Rover when he was reportedly “dazzled” by sunlight and hit a Kia sedan while leaving the Sandringham estate. Two women were in the vehicle along with the driver’s nine-month old baby.
According to the BBC, Philip was driving alone and his protection team was behind him in a separate vehicle. After the crash, the Land Rover flipped and a member of the public removed the royal from the wreckage of the car.
Less than 48 hours after the crash, the Duke of Edinburgh was spotted behind the wheel again, driving without a seatbelt on.
Emma Fairweather, who was the passenger in the car the royal collided with, told the Sunday Mirror that she and her friend could see the Land Rover as they were driving and assumed the vehicle would stop.
“We could see the Land Rover about 150 yards away from us at a junction, then it started to move. The speed limit was 60mph but my friend was doing no more than 50mph. I kept thinking he was going to stop but he didn’t,” she recalled. “It all went into slow motion as I watched the other car. As we approached I could make out that it was an elderly driver.”
“My friend was braking and seemed so in control but I was terrified,” Fairweather continued. “But then we crashed. I don’t think the vehicle spun, it just pushed straight across the road. Then it was just disbelief. I was in shock.”
Fairweather added that she has received a phone call from one of the Queen’s Ladies in Waiting extending the Queen’s “warmest good wishes” but has not heard from Philip himself.
“I love the royals but I’ve been ignored and rejected and I’m in a lot of pain,” she said. “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?”
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said, “A full message of support was sent to both the driver and the passenger.”
Fairweather suffered a broken wrist in the crash and was the only injured party as the others had minor cuts. A police investigation into the crash is still ongoing.
Photo Credit: Getty / Max Mumby/Indigo
