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Prince Philip will not face charges over car crash

Posted at 7:12 AM, Feb 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-14 07:12:44-05

Britain’s Prince Philip will not face any charges over the car crash in which the 97-year-old’s Land Rover flipped onto its side, the Crown Prosecution Service announced Thursday.

The Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, collided last month with another vehicle carrying two women, aged 28 and 45, as well as a nine-month old baby boy.

While the 97-year-old emerged uninjured after the accident on a public road near the Queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, the 28-year-old suffered cuts to her knee while the 45-year-old sustained a broken wrist. The baby boy was unhurt.

While the CPS did not identify Philip by name, the statement’s details matched the prince’s crash.

“We have decided that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute,” it said.

Philip gave up his driver’s license in the wake of the crash — after it became clear that he could be charged over it.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said the prince “respects” the CPS decision, according to Britain’s Press Association.

The CPS said it had considered “the level of culpability, the age of the driver and the surrender of the driving license” in its decision.

After the accident, which occurred on January 17, pictures emerged showing Philip’s vehicle lying on its side with debris scattered around it.

Another image showed the vehicle had suffered major damage to the front left-side door — the opposite to where a driver sits in the UK — and much of the side.

Questions were raised at the time over whether the prince should still be driving. A royal source — who asked not to be named — said all procedures required to keep his license up to date had been followed.

Philip retired from public life in 2017 after 65 years of service, during which he conducted more than 22,000 solo engagements and delivered nearly 5,500 speeches.

His retirement came more than five years after Buckingham Palace initially said he would commence scaling back his workload, though he remained eager to continue many of his duties.

Since taking a step back, Philip has been seen in public at a handful of events with the Queen and other members of the royal family, including last year’s weddings of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank.