BETTER late than never! Prince Philip has apologized to a woman who was injured in a car accident in Sandringham, England, when his SUV hit her Kia, writing that he was “deeply sorry.” The Duke of Edinburgh, 97, was involved in the two-car collision Jan. 17 when he was pulling his Land Rover out of a driveway and onto the A149 road. He suffered no major injuries although his car flipped over. Two people in the other vehicle were treated for minor injuries while a 9-month-old baby who was also in the car was not hurt. Emma Fairweather, 46, a passenger who broke her wrist in the accident, told the Mirror that she hadn’t heard from the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, but he rectified that error with a letter Jan. 21. In the note on Sandringham House letterhead, Philip wrote: “I would like you to know how very sorry I am for my part in the accident at the Babingley crossroads.” “I have been across that crossing any number of times and I know very well the amount of traffic that uses that main road,” he continued in the letter, which was posted in full by the Sunday Mirror on Saturday. “It was a bright sunny day and at about three in the afternoon, the sun was low over the Wash. In other words, the sun was shining low over the main road. In normal conditions I would have no difficulty in seeing traffic coming from the Dersingham direction, but I can only imagine that I failed to see the car coming, and I am very contrite about the consequences.” “I wish you a speedy recovery from a very distressing experience. Yours sincerely, Philip,” the British royal concluded. The duke was spotted driving without wearing a seatbelt 48 hours after the accident. He was reportedly warned by police for the lapse after pictures surfaced. (SD-Agencies) (SD-Agencies) (SD-Agencies) In the latest headline-grabbing move by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, the founder and CEO of major online fashion mall operator Zozo Inc. has announced a plan to dole out 1 million Japanese yen to 100 individuals to mark a successful New Year’s sale. Maezawa, who is scheduled to take a trip to the moon in 2023, wrote on Twitter late Saturday that he would give away a total of ￥100 million in cash out of his own pocket to 100 followers on the social media service who follow his account and retweet his post by the end of Monday. “The Zozotown New Year’s sale was the fastest ever to reach sales of ￥10 billion,” he wrote, “So as a gesture of my appreciation, I will personally be giving a present of ￥1 million in cash to 100 people for a grand total of ￥100 million.” The tweet quickly went viral, garnering more than 2.5 million retweets as of late Sunday after smashing the previous Japan retweet record earlier in the day. It also prompted an incredible upsurge in users following Maezawa’s Twitter account, which went from some 500,000 prior to Saturday’s post to some 2.94 million by late Sunday. In another tweet Sunday, the Zozo chief thanked those who had already participated, saying he believed a “dream,” not cold, hard cash, was the motivating factor behind the attention surrounding his plan. “I think that what everyone wants is a dream, not the money,” he wrote. “If you have ￥1 million, you want to use it for something like friends, family members, society and animals. This makes me want to cry because the use is aimed at things other than yourselves. Japan, you’re not half bad. You have many dreams. As for the retweets, I understand we hit a new Japan record. ... Thank you.” In mid-September, Maezawa captured global attention after announcing he would embark on an 800,000-km trip around the moon and back aboard the BFR spacecraft developed by Elon Musk’sSpaceX, along with several artists he plans to invite. The billionaire, who would become the first private lunar traveler, said he hopes to contribute to world peace, a desire that was given greater urgency following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Because of this, he said he was seeking “artists committed to making the world a better place.”(SD-Agencies) (SD-Agencies) | 