Here are some photos of Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, today at a fancy horse competition at Windsor Castle. The horse thing is: Riding for the Disabled Fancy Dress Competition. She was photographed in a £2,097 maxi dress and a comfortable-looking jacket, smiling and clapping for the riders and horses. It’s kind of strange that she made the effort to come out for this and be photographed, considering her police motorcade nearly killed an 80-year-old woman this week. While Sophie wasn’t behind the car – it was actually a police motorcycle – the optics are pretty strange, given the headlines. The Times even ran a brutal update on what happened to the poor senior woman:

A police motorcade escorting the Duchess of Edinburgh hit a woman in her eighties “at speed”, launching her “six or seven metres” across a three-lane carriageway. The victim remained in a critical condition on Thursday after paramedics and an air ambulance went to the junction on the A4 near Earl’s Court, west London, 24 hours earlier.

Witnesses said the victim was carrying shopping bags as she approached traffic lights and had stepped into the road when she was hit by a police motorcycle. The force of the collision launched her “six or seven metres” across the westbound carriageway, a witness said. There were no other casualties.

Buckingham Palace said the duchess’s “thoughts and prayers are with the injured lady and her family”, adding that she was grateful for the “swift response” of emergency services. It is understood that the duchess did not see the collision and that her vehicle was not involved.

Martin Hennessy, 62, a retired antiques dealer who has lived on the main road for four decades, said: “The road is a nightmare. We’ve warned the council about it. There have been three people killed here. When you get to the junction, you have to step out to see if anything is coming — that’s when she was hit.

Fiona El-Lasbi, who has lived in a flat overlooking the road for 22 years, told Sky News: “After seeing these [police escorts] regularly and the way they come through and shout at the public to stop, she probably didn’t get a chance, or the police bikes were coming too quick. She was hit at speed, this wasn’t ten or 20 miles per hour.”

Aaliyah Blackwood, 28, a lifelong resident, said: “The police escorts have been regular since the coronation because Kensington Palace is just up the road. They’re supposed to come and stop the traffic but if there’s a red light they can keep going. They don’t stop for anybody.” Another resident said: “There’s no blind side, it’s a straight road. How could you hit her? It’s because you weren’t looking; it’s what they do, they drive forward and they’re looking back.”

The London Ambulance Service confirmed that a woman was treated at the scene before being taken to a major trauma centre. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which investigates complaints against police officers in England and Wales, has opened an investigation and its officers were at the scene on Wednesday night.

[From The Times]

This sounds horrible – a straight road with no blind sides, police-on-motorcycles who don’t believe they have to stop for lights, and one of them rammed into an 80-year-old woman and the force of the impact (at high speed) was enough to throw the woman seven meters away? YIKES. Again, Sophie was not behind the wheel, but this was her police escort. Can you even f–king imagine what the British media would do if one of the Sussexes’ security guards rammed down an 80-year-old woman? There would be banner headlines demanding Harry be deported, they would demand a criminal investigation, they would create a swarm-mentality with the international press. But because it’s Sophie, they’re just shrugging and taking photos of her laughing and smiling at a horse show.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.