Last week, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, was traveling by car through London when one of her police-motorcyclist security people rammed into a grandmother in her 80s. Apparently, the police motorcyclist was traveling at high speed, so the force of the impact sent the elderly pedestrian flying seven meters across the road. At this point, we have no details about whether Sophie’s police motorcade even stopped to help this woman, and we only found out about the accident well after the fact, when Sophie made a lukewarm statement offering thoughts and prayers to the woman’s family. Again, Sophie was not behind the wheel, but it was her motorcade and no one even knows why Sophie needs a full police escort to travel around London… especially when it didn’t even look like she was traveling to or from an official engagement.
As the reports of the senior lady’s condition worsened, Sophie then headed out to the Windsor Horse Show, where she wore a crazy-expensive dress and watched her daughter compete in some carriage-driving competition. Sophie was all smiles. As I said last week, the optics were giving “my police escort almost killed someone and I’m thrilled about it.” Over the weekend, the woman’s family released a statement saying that she is in a coma:
An elderly woman hit by a police motorcade escorting the Duchess of Edinburgh is in a coma, her family has said. Helen Holland, 81, from Essex, was visiting her older sister in London on Wednesday when she was struck by the motorbike at a junction in Earl’s Court at around 3.21pm, according to her relatives.
Her son Martin Holland and his wife Lisa-Marie said they were “shocked and sickened at her extensive injuries”.
“She is being well cared for by the NHS who we must thank deeply for their help in keeping her alive,” they told the BBC.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has launched an investigation into the accident, while the Metropolitan Police department that investigates officers’ conduct has been informed, as is routine. The family is “calling for a thorough investigation”, BBC News At Ten presenter Clive Myrie reported on Friday.
Duchess Sophie, who was being escorted through west London when the collision occurred, said on Thursday that her “heartfelt thoughts and prayers” were with Ms Holland, from Birchanger, and her family.
This reminds me so much of Prince Philip’s car accident, where he rammed into a car with a young mother and young children. The kids were ultimately okay, although they did need medical care, not that Philip or the Windsors gave a sh-t. That’s what all of this is making clear – Sophie doesn’t care, the police don’t care, and the British media isn’t motivated to really investigate what happened because… it’s just Sophie and no one really cares about her. I guess we can expect Sophie and her big police protection unit to continue to terrorize the UK this week while this poor woman is in a coma.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – The Prince and Princess of Wales and The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh attend a Garden Party in celebration of the coronation at Buckingham Palace. Pictured: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh BACKGRID USA 9 MAY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh watches competitors parade in the Riding for the Disabled Fancy Dress Competition in the Copper Horse arena on day 2 of the Royal Windsor Horse Show Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 12 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh watches competitors parade in the Riding for the Disabled Fancy Dress Competition in the Copper Horse arena on day 2 of the Royal Windsor Horse Show Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 12 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh watches competitors parade in the Riding for the Disabled Fancy Dress Competition in the Copper Horse arena on day 2 of the Royal Windsor Horse Show Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 12 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh watches competitors parade in the Riding for the Disabled Fancy Dress Competition in the Copper Horse arena on day 2 of the Royal Windsor Horse Show Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 12 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duchess of Edinburgh watches competitors parade in the Riding for the Disabled Fancy Dress Competition in the Copper Horse arena during the Royal Windsor Horse Show in Windsor Castle, Berkshire. Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 12 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I’m really glad that Celebitchy covered this. I wondered how that poor woman was faring, and I’m so sorry to hear that she’s in a coma. Apparently the area she was hit is quite dangerous.
What I cannot find is information about when the royals get to travel by motocade. Presumably it’s only to work events, but I cannot find which work event Sophie attended, nor do most media seem to be covering this accident at all. Surely a motocade is covered by public/ taxpayer money, is relatively rare, and needs to be accounted for?
I tried navigating the court circular but didn’t have much luck. I think there was an engagement? I’m assuming there was? But yeah it seems unclear.
As I understand it, this happened at about three in the afternoon, but she didn’t have an engagement until after five. And that wasn’t two hours away so this is not only horrible but completely unnecessary.
Same, Jais.
The police decide what is and is not necessary. I assume the threat assessment for all the royals is a lot higher following the coronation since it temporarily raised the profile of the family.
I live in DC, when the presidential motorcade is on the move, there are police on the sidewalks telling pedestrians to stand in place so they don’t get hit.
I get them having security for work engagements but on Twitter I did see that the engagement was actually 2-3 hours after the accident. Like @ML, I tried looking it up on the CC but maybe I just can’t navigate the site well. What I think is that the royals take advantage of the motorcade security. Like you’re getting security for an engagement in London or wherever and you decide to go shopping or to lunch beforehand and so use the security. Is that technically using security for just a work engagement? I have no idea if this is how things happen but the whole RAVEC secrecy lends itself to conspiracy theorizing.
Are they relate to Tom Holland?
@Tacky- Sophie is hardly at the equivalent level of a US president. I think Pinkasaurus is exactly right, the royals simply don’t think that they should have to be inconvenienced by traffic, like us plebs. And I’m SO disgusted that the BM isn’t reporting on this, although I’m not at all surprised.
Also, I’m from DC! I live in CA now and I miss everything about DC except the summer & winter weather.
It’s convenience. The “working” royals do not believe they should be inconvenienced by London traffic for any random errand and expect the peasants to dive out of their way, and also pick up the tab through their taxes. Do you know God himself has decided they are better than everyone else since birth?
This is such a “let them eat cake” moment. The only way something gets done is if Camilla recognizes the risk and tells Chuck to reduce Sophie’s security escort access
💯, pinkosaurus. As someone posted on another thread, the working Royals, save for I believe Charles, Camilla, William and Kate, were supposed to have their security reduced to only those times when they were on engagements. I remember there was a huge uproar at the time because Princess Anne had been the target of a foiled kidnapping attempt decades previously, and some thought that her security should not be removed.
Cut to a little while later and iwe find out that the Queen had been paying for full-time security for Prince Andrew. Was she doing the same for the other minor royals? Or, was the cut in security announced to allay public spending fears and then reneged?
RAVEC is weirdly secretive and it would behoove the British public to learn just how it operates and who gets security and when. After all, they are paying for it. I also think this highlights the absurdity of Harry being refused security but Sophie getting a speeding motorcade through London for, what, a shopping trip?
By the way, I do not think that there is ANY reason that a royal motorcade should be able to speed through London streets (or any street for that matter). NOTHING the Royals do is worth the life of an innocent pedestrian.
Oh dear. Unfortunately, I don’t have such high hopes for the poor woman. Just last week a pedestrian got hit by a car near where I live and he unfortunately died after 4 days in intensive care. This hits a bit close to home as it happened minutes after the bus I was on passed by. Some drivers just don’t care and floor it down, much less a police escort speeding. This so called brf has shown time and time again that they don’t care about anyone but themselves and people should really just stop consuming propaganda and start asking themselves if this is still worth it.
I suspect the poor woman is on life support. It doesn’t sound very hopeful.
She’s 81, still hanging in there, but yes, it looks grim for her. If she recovers, to whatever extent, hopefully they be able to keep her comfortable.
It’s frustrating that there are so few details of the accident, and it seems like the extra security was illegally okayed but none of the British media seem to find that newsworthy. If you’re only supposed to get this escort attending official royal functions, why not report which function Sophie was returning from? And who allowed her to use a motorcade? What is the speed limit: police in most countries are not allowed to exceed the speed limit without cause. This woman was hit “at speed” but which speed hasn’t been reported. In hindsight there was more consternation towards Prince Philip and he actually showed more remorse than Sophie has.
Where are the inquiries into where Sophie was going at that time, whether or not she was actually performing royal duties, and how fast the motorcade driver was going when he hit the old lady “at speed.” There seems to be more curiosity about the number of bathrooms in the Sussexes’ home in another country than in an actual police incident in their own country.
Why would Sophie need a police escort with outriders on motorcycles if she’s just doing some shopping or whatever.
She’s not the head of state, nor the prime minister. She’s married to # 13 on the LoS.
What’s worse though, really showing she can’t be bothered — as far as I remember, she didn’t release a statement herself. Bucks House did on her behalf, proving peasants are beneath her and she couldn’t care less.
No wonder her PR agency failed.
Seriously, this. Does anyone actually stalk Sofiesta and Dullard? I wouldn’t think those two would need security motorcades for anything.
I don’t get that either. I can understand having security and perhaps even a simple police escort, but not a multi vehicle motorcade traveling at high speeds. That seems highly unnecessary.
She needs an escort to make work for the police involved. Yeah, Sophie and the Royal Family are awful, but the Metropolitan Police are horrendous as well, and this is on them. There needs to be a full investigation of the police involved and their decision making. If Sophie somehow pushed for unsafe conditions, then she deserves whatever comes her way from that.
My honest guess is that with the coronation they were stretched too far and had people without the proper training doing things like being a motorcycle outrider.
Whether the BM cares about Sophie or not, they should care about police misconduct.
Surely there must be a publicly accessible record of police escorted motorcades in London.
Which royals are doing it when not on official business and how often?
I’m pretty sure Will and Kate’s motorcade hit someone on the way to Windsor a few years ago. I think I read it here. The people of west London should beware!
You’re right, in 2019.
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a28101514/kate-middleton-prince-william-convoy-hits-woman/#
We never did find out anything more about it 👀
There was an article at the end of this about Meghan wearing a brown wraparound dress and an Instagram link, so obs I clicked on to see the dress, it took me to @SussexRoyal. Interesting to note that @RoyalFamily & @KensingtonRoyal no longer follow them. They did a few weeks ago
Apologies for threadjacking. Monday brain is all over the place
Whoa! You both have good memories, Original Penguin and Hannah.
Wow! I’d bet money that W&K were running late as usual which may have contributed to their escort driving faster than what could be considered a safe speed.
The BRF is not going to care unless God forbid the woman dies from her injuries and the incident becomes international news.
They’ll blame the victim. It’s their lone area of PR expertise.
Sophie never stops shocking me how cold hearted she must be . Like her face and actions are giving let them eat cake I have a duchess life to be getting on with.
Praying for the poor old lady .
So heartless. I’m disgusted by these awful people. They’re so protected by the media.
@Over it Right? So disturbing! Omg I’d be a mess, even if I weren’t at the wheel. Any one of us who aren’t sociopaths would be. We’d probably make an in person visit to the hospital as well and tell the family how sorry we are. She just went about her day at the garden party looking smug. I’m so over these people. They are just vile.
this is giving Queen Charlotte vibes – sorrows, sorrows, prayers, prayers…
LOL!
I seem to remember the press making it known that Sophie drove herself to engagements. When did she graduate to full police escort?
Why in the world does she have a police escort in the first place?
I have a feeling the palace controls the statement on her behalf to cover their own best interests and perhaps use it in the future to throw her under the bus when it suits them. This woman seems like she’s a social climber and wants to guarantee her and her “heirs” lifestyle publicly funded for the rest of their existence. The balcony moment was the white revival for their survival. Everything they do and call “protocol” is just dreadful.
We stayed in that area last summer. That intersection (and that main street in general) is a bit dicey for pedestrians, and there are a lot of fast-moving cars and pedestrians in the same place at normal times, much less when a speeding motorcade goes through. I hope the woman recovers.
I hope she pulls through. That’s really sad.
she should take care of her medical bills, if she had any sense and/or decency
@Ana Maria: the UK has public healthcare (for now, at least).
I would have made a point to visit the woman’s family — or something. A brief statement from Sophie is just useless and cold.
And yeah, why the hell was a police escort needed? People don’t even turn up to Sophie’s events when they’re publicized.