I say! Bit of an accident here, jolly well.

The New Yorker has long had a tradition of printing small stories about crazy life in the British Isles under the headline "There Will Always Be An England Dept."

It's also obvious that there will always be a Prince Philip, from the looks of things.

He's 97, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, now known fully as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, having been born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.

But he's 97, so maybe he shouldn't be driving. 

On January 17, he pulled his Range Rover out of a side road, into the path of a car occupied by Emma Fairweather, her friend (the driver) and the driver's daughter, a 9-month old baby boy.  The picture below shows the detritus left behind.

Other aftermath of the crash: As of this writing, Ms Fairweather, who suffered a broken wrist, is still waiting for an apology from the royal family.  And Phil is out driving again in a brand-new Range Rover, and doing so without using his seat belt.


"I'm lucky to be alive and he hasn’t even said sorry," Ms Fairweather told a London paper. "It has been such a traumatic and painful time and I would have expected more of the royal family."



"It could have been so much worse," Fairweather went on. "Prince Philip apparently said to a witness that it was the sun that dazzled him, but I can’t see how that could be true when it was overcast.”

What seems worse is that last week, Buckingham Palace  said Philip and the queen had privately contacted the people in the crash and exchanged good wishes. Fairweather says that did not happen.

"I still haven't had any contact from the royal household," she told the paper. "Maybe he should prioritize that over test-driving his new car."

It's nice to see that England has the same problem we have over here with the superannuated refusing to give up driving, even though they are way past expiration date for piloting several tons of metal on roads occupied by others, while dealing with deficits in attention, vision, hearing and reflex.

To be honest, some 97-year-olds are still sharp as tacks. Some aren't. But here in Maryland, every time some legislator even dreams of submitting a law for consideration which would require people over a certain age to be re-tested every so often, the Gray Lobby rears its gray head and beats the measure down to defeat.

And then they drive home, hoping that some geezer doesn't pull out on them and send them to the emergency room.

Very simple: if you're old, please show that you're still competent to drive. If you pass, keep driving! If not, call a cab.