Duke of Edinburgh’s Road Accident

[SirGawain]

AIBU to ask why on earth is the Duke of Edinburgh driving at the age of 97.

Sky news are reporting there was another person in the car with the Duke, police won't confirm whether it was a close protection officer.
If there was a passenger hope they are OK. Looking at the pics of the car there seems to be a lot of damage on the passenger side

The current headline from the Daily Mail just shows how much this has been downplayed. (I know it's a shit paper but usually very dramatic headlines)

'Is everyone else alright?' How 'very brave' but 'shaken' Prince Philip, 97, 'went to check on mother and her baby' after he was pulled through roof of his Land Rover after he was 'dazzled by sun' and crashed into Kia

No mention of injuries, hospital etc just focusing on the DOE's concern for the people he hit, and how he was very brave.

If whats in the Daily heil is to be belived he pulled out into the path of the Kia so thats what?, driving without due care and attention?.

It's not ageism to say should you be driving at 97yrs old .It is common knowledge your reactions are slower ,eyesight not as good ,that is the inevitable fact of ageing .My DF before he passed away became really unsafe to the point we had to involve the GP who told DF it was now coming to the time give up but he still refused ,he became ill so that did stop him but as much as he was my DF he was selfish to keep going .It is a huge car to be in control of ,luckily no one was hurt badly but i think this shows that elderly drivers need to realise when they are no longer safe .We judge younger drivers because they are young and deemed higher risk so why are elderly drivers tippe toed round .I agree not all elderly drivers are going to be unsafe as with younger drivers ,you cant make a sweeping judgement. But now i think it now he should give up .

I wonder how much his car insurance costs?

Is he seen as a risk because of age and “status” or is it quite cheap because he does low mileage? That car can’t be cheap to insure can it?

Just curious.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if it transpires that he doesn’t have insurance. That would be a bit of a fuck-up all round.

Hope the people in the other car are ok. We’re not hearing anything about their condition today, even though they probably have to arrange to get to work etc with no car and have no money for public transport. Phil will just get a flunky to nip him to Lidl.

Our reactions get slower as we age and on paper it certainly looks like the DOE should let his driver do the work instead. He probably doesn't like to admit it (who does?) but this accident may be a wake-up call to give up gracefully before anything worse happens. If I could afford a driver I'd be happy to use one and sit back with no responsibility.

It is clear from pictures of the Duke that he isn't as upright or quick as he used to be, so it is not a stretch to imagine that he would find it more difficult to turn his head, lean out to see oncoming traffic, react quickly to stop and so on. There are no 97 year olds who haven't experienced physical deterioration, none. Also, about 30% of men and nearly 50% of women over 90 have dementia! You cannot categorise all over 65's as unfit to drive- most are just fine, but once you get over 80 odd, there are sight, mobility and cognitive issues that mean this is a high risk group on the roads.

The fact that young people are stupid and reckless doesn't mean that there shouldn't be a retest for older people. It's an argument for trying to keep younger silly dangerous people off the road. Couple that with an older driver with slow reaction times driving slowly and it's a crazy combination.

You flatter yourself @Bitoutofpractice, I'm angry with the ageism on this thread and the presumption of guilt because one driver is 97.

I don’t see how the accident could be the other drivers fault. If the sun is in your eyes you don’t just pull out regardless and hope for the best. Hopefully this will be the last time he drives. I wouldn’t consider it a minor accident, someone has brocken their arm and the car is written off.

We don't have all the facts.
We don't know how capable Prince Phillip is behind the wheel.
If it's shown he isn't safe to be on the road he should stop driving but until we know, speculation is daft.

A Range Rover is massive and heavy. There must have been some impact involved if it landed on its side.

Higher centre of gravity with the high spec version? And we don't know how fast it or the Kia was going.

I wonder what really happened
very bad example to set, Queenie must be cross

What I can't get over is that he drives himself when there must be a driver on call 24/7.

I would happily give up driving and be chauffeured around and I'm not yet 60.

I never quite understand when people roll out all of this independence bollocks. It costs a lot to run a car with depreciation, increased insurance as you get older, MOT etc even if you only drive 10 miles per week. So why not simply have a taxi when you need to get anywhere? Surely when you get into your 80's you are not having to go anywhere late at night so taxis would be available? Also who is likely to call a person in the 80's for help in the case of an emergency?

Weetabix any was drunk

I understand that. But being drunk isn't the only cause of impaired driving is it?

I agree with @Weetabixandshreddies, yes Ant was drunk and therefore should never have been behind the wheel of a car. Drink causes delayed reactions, mid judgement of circumstances and general bad driving. But drink is not the only cause of those things.

Miss not mid!

Got to be more to it
much more to it

Well I haven't been ageist bluelady so you can ffs and patiently explain stuff to other people thanks

I live in a street with cars parked on both sides. There's just enough room to get through (although a fire engine would take out the lot of them) and you wouldn't risk going more than about 20 miles an hour. A couple of weeks ago, one of my neighbours was driving down there and a cat ran out in front of her. She slammed on the brakes, car swerved, clipped a van, her car ended up on its side. Spectacular stuff at very low speed.

When we lived in quite a remote village, there were two very elderly people in the village who really shouldn't have been driving but there was no public transport. Everyone agreed they shouldn't be driving but how else where they meant to get anywhere?

Apart from pure bloody-mindedness, there is absolutely no reason for the DoE to drive. It's not like he can just go off on his own or anything anyway.

Oh, and my driving instructor had never taken the driving test as he'd been in the army. He'd presumably passed the ADI stuff though.

But driving while under the influence of advanced age is not a crime

We’re not hearing anything about their condition today,

Why would 'we' want to hear anything about their condition today. It's nobody's business but their own.
The sheer nosiness of some people never ceases to amaze.

Oh come on any injuries to the people in the other car would definitely be hushed up wouldn't they

All these little old people grimly hanging on to their right to drive
what about the rights of other people not to be totalled by little old people who should not be driving

Haven't RTFT, but I'd love to be the person telling the Duke of Edinburgh to stop doing anything. Not.
Still it's distracting everyone from Brexit, isn't it?!

But driving while under the influence of advanced age is not a crime

Surely driving while impaired is though?