13th JUNE, 1997 NEWS REPORT

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Camilla's car 'came at me like a missile'

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By Sean O'Neill and Tom Leonard

CAMILLA Parker Bowles, the close friend of the Prince of Wales, was driving "hellish fast" when she hit a car on a quiet country road, the driver of the other vehicle said yesterday.

Carolyn Melville-Smith, whose Volvo estate was written off in the accident on Wednesday evening, said that Mrs Parker Bowles's Ford Mondeo estate came towards her "like a missile". Miss Melville-Smith, 53, an interior designer, finished up trapped in her car, which was tipped on its side in a ditch between Norton and Easton Grey on the Wiltshire border.

"That car was going hellish fast," said Miss Melville-Smith. "We hit headlight to headlight on the driver's side. "It all happened very quickly. The next thing I knew the other car was flying through the air. There was a huge ditch looming up at me and my car tipped over on to the passenger side. Then there was deathly quiet. It was so quiet that I thought the other car had driven off. Then I saw a wheel in the middle of the road. I imagined wrongly that it was from my car."

Miss Melville-Smith, who did not speak to the other driver, was freed from her car by other motorists and taken by ambulance to Malmesbury Cottage Hospital, where she was treated for minor chest injuries. Her car, which had to be winched out of the ditch, was said by mechanics to be beyond repair.

She had been driving towards her home at Post Office Cottage in Easton Grey when the accident happened at about 8.20pm. "I could not get out because my skirt was trapped in the door," she said.

"I was very surprised when I found out who the other driver was. People do tend to go fast on country roads, especially when they know the roads. The next thing I knew a couple had stopped their car and were knocking on my window. They really went out of their way to help me. I was saying that I should tear my dress to get out but they managed to yank the door open. I cannot thank them enough for their help."

The couple were Geoff and Caroline Scott. Mrs Scott, 45, a cleaner, said she realised that Miss Melville-Smith was not badly hurt "and I just wanted to stay with her to comfort her".

The Scotts even fetched Geoff Hartley, Miss Melville-Smith's boyfriend, from his home and took him to the hospital. They later drove the couple home. Mr Scott, 53, said he thought that Mrs Parker Bowles had left the scene of the accident to fetch help.

Royal sources said that Mrs Parker Bowles, having established that the other driver could not get out of her car, hurried to a nearby hill to get a signal on her mobile phone. She called the police and the ambulance service before ringing the Prince, who was expecting her for dinner at nearby Highgrove House, his Gloucestershire home.

He sent Tony Parker, his own police bodyguard, to the scene with two of his valets and two other members of staff. Mrs Parker Bowles, who passed a routine breath test, was treated for a severe blow to the head and a twisted wrist at Highgrove by a local doctor.

There had been a heavy thunderstorm less than an hour before the accident which had made local driving conditions hazardous. Mechanics at a local garage said the Volvo, which suffered crash damage to the offside wing, doors and a shattered wheel, was beyond repair.

"I would be surprised if anybody suffered serious injuries in this accident," said Nick Gray, 30, a mechanic, examining the Volvo. "It is what we call a side-glance."

Sporting a bruised lip from the collision, Mrs Parker Bowles was driven out of Highgrove yesterday morning, followed later by her car, loaded on to the back of a lorry. After changing cars at nearby Tetbury, she was driven on to her home at Lacock, Wilts. Wiltshire police said both women were breathalysed and the tests proved negative.

A police spokesman said that the accident would be fully investigated. "A report will be put together to find out what actually happened," he said.

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