Myopic plan's age-old oversight

WE'LL probably never really know what caused the car crash that led directly to Prince Philip hanging up his car keys for good. But it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that it was failing eyesight.

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After all, Philip was 97. And the sun was very low in the sky when the crash happened, potentially dazzling the Queen's husband. Eyes take longer to adapt from shade to light with advancing years: it’s been speculated that he simply didn’t see the other car as he pulled out from a driveway onto the busy A149 close to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

The prince’s Land Rover overturned when it collided with a little Kia. The other driver and her passenger were treated in hospital and discharged: Philip was helped out of his 4x4 by witnesses uninjured but reportedly “very shocked and shaken”.

Anyway, the fact is he voluntarily gave up driving a few weeks later, and there would have to have been a damn good reason for the fiercely independent Philip to do that.