AIBU to think that driving at 97 is a tad unreasonable?

The Queen can't be prosecuted unless she is removed as monarch. Not so Prince P, he can be prosecuted. The investigation will take some time and no guarantees either way.

A friend, in her sixties, was involved in exactly the same type of accident, pulling out of a side road onto an A road, and colliding with an oncoming car. She looked carefully twice before she pulled out, but nevertheless had an accident. The passenger in the other car suffered a broken leg. She was interviewed by the police, and notified some weeks later that she would be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention, but:
it took several weeks to come through, and even longer to go to court.
So please wait and see what happens before making all these judgements.

As Sparklefizz said-he was definitely able to make a judgment call;
and what an excellent judgment call it was!

Leonora47 Exactly! So apparently he has passed an eye test but he is not fit to make a judgment call.

There was no necessity at all for him to enter into a line of traffic travelling at sixty mph if his vision was obscured by low sunlight. It his hard to believe that a man of ninety seven has a reason so imperative that he would risk his life, and that of others, to drive when, by his own admission, he was unable to drive safely.
I am in my eighties, and gave up driving at seventy five, because I realised that my vision was beginning to be impaired by sun-glare.
He was quite happy to wrap himself in two tons of steel, and launch himself into high speed traffic, (the speed limit is sixty mph) even though, as he admitted, he was blinded by the low sun.

Mind you, just how many people who are driving have taken non-prescription drugs that day?

on morphine?
surely the consultant will inform the DVLA?

Sitting next to a woman in cancer outpatients today. She is elderly in wheelchair and unaccompanied. Woman obviously v v sick. Nurse came out to apologise for delay in seeing her. They obviously think she should be in patient but she insists she is comfortable at home. Discussion about morphine etc she's on. Nurse says "Are you sure you should be driving yourself here?" OMGG! Drive defensively folks!

I think the woman injured will have been talked into feeling badly treated by the media and they may well have made her feel far more of a victim than she actually is. I know that when my dil was interviewed about her life they briefed her beforehand and then threw in a question they had given her no warning of to throw her off her guard. If the media can't find a way to sensationalise it they won't be interested in showing it. It is a bit hard to blame her, she has probably never had any dealings with media people before and everyone will be telling her how badly she has been treated.

I remember some years ago when my car was stolen, several people told me to say I had things like golf clubs in my boot! If there is a bandwagon people will jump on it.

Annie. You can't re-write the Highway Code. You have to give way to oncoming traffic before turning out and one of the first things a learner driver is taught is that you look right before looking left because they're the ones who will hit you first! They might be breaking the speed limit so all the more reason to be careful.

I'll give up now because I doubt you're ever going to get it.

Oh the hilarity! I was trying to say if it had been some rough and ready kind of 97 year old in a battered old car, not wearing a seat belt the outcome and the conversation would have been so different.

Never mind.

I would still be very shaken but my overriding thought would be thank God nobody was more seriously hurt.
Apparently some "Royal Correspondent" has tweeted about him causing such carnage on the road.
Those words are an insult to anyone who has been seriously injured or worse in a RTA.

Why are they so OTT?

Was he taking beer to a party Jalima?
Ask Lily65, LisaGran


He could have been supplying the cigarettes as well!

There's a spot near me that's particularly bad in the morning in November/December.I actually drive a different slightly longer route to work to avoid it those weeks.The D of E must surely know that route to Sandringham very well.I suspect he was entirely at fault for pulling out.And very insensitive to jump in a replacement car with no seat belt.There is being stoic,and there's is being totally B minded.
But I'm very cynical about the injured woman appearing on Good Morning aying she's upset about an inadequate apology.The queen is hardly likely to pop by with a packet of biscuits and flowers is she ?She should leave the police and insurance companies to sort things and investigate and if the D of E is at fault he she be treated legally as anyone else would.I would still be very shaken but my overriding thought would be thank God nobody was more seriously hurt.

I agree Merlot

If it was speeding it would have caused a more severe impact

Anniebach, The speed of the oncoming car is irrelevant. If it was speeding it's a separate issue for the police to deal with but it won't have caused the accident. It was PP's responsibility to judge when it was safe to turn out. It's the same for any driver at a junction, regardless of whether or not the sun is dazzling him.

Was he taking beer to a party Jalima?

sorry, where did the beer come from?

In that case no-one would be wondering why he had not contacted the other party.

beer.

I have very little interest in the RF but I wonder if it had been another scenario what would the reaction have been?

Lsts say it was a rather arrogant and stubborn 97 year old driving a bashed up old Volvo. In the back of the car are a load of old fag packets and he had just nipped to the shop to add to his supply of beer.

Anyone heard the saying "there was only ever one man who was perfect and he died on the cross"? Whether or not you are a Christian, it is good to think about it. We all make mistakes.

When we are "caught out by unexpected dazzle", we don't then pull blindly out of a side road, do we?

Leonora if we have all been caught out by unexpected dazzle why is it different for him ? We don’t know the speed of the car which hit him

This man, with seventy years of driving experience, really should have noticed that the sun tends to be very low and dazzling on winter afternoons. If he was blinded by the
sun, he should not have pulled out
into fast flowing traffic. He had personal, professional drivers at his disposal, and if his appointment was urgent, he could have called on one of them.
If he couldn't see to drive, he should never have left the palace grounds.
We have all been caught out by unexpected dazzle when driving on public roads; but he had plenty of chance to change his mind before leaving the palace grounds, and risking it.