Ranulph Fiennes to be charged over car crash

Explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has been charged with driving without due care and attention after a car crash, the Crown Prosecution Service said today.

Sir Ranulph, 66, the oldest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest, was left dazed and bloodied after the crash in Stockport, Greater Manchester, on March 6.

Nicholas Beckett, CPS reviewing lawyer, said: "Having carefully reviewed a file of evidence passed to me by Greater Manchester Police, I have concluded that there is sufficient evidence, and it is in the public interest, to charge Sir Ranulph Fiennes with driving without due care and attention."

Sir Ranulph will appear at Stockport Magistrates' Court later this year, a CPS spokesman added.

His Jaguar collided with a Nissan Micra travelling in the opposite direction on the A6, then a Ford Focus, before it mounted a pavement and came to a halt near the front window of an Italian restaurant.

The male driver of the Micra suffered serious injuries including collapsed lungs, broken ribs and a broken leg. A five-year-old child who was a passenger in the same car suffered minor injuries in the collision which took place near to the junction of Dundonald Street, Heaviley, at about 2pm.

The Polar explorer had competed in the 42-mile High Peak Marathon in Derbyshire the evening before the crash.

Teams of four test their fitness, endurance and navigational skills through the night as they tackle terrain which is mostly made up of pathless peat bog.

The renowned adventurer was the first man to visit both the North and South Poles by foot and the first to completely cross Antarctica by foot.

Last May at the age of 65 he climbed to the top of Everest, the world's highest peak, to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Sir Ranulph had a double heart bypass in 2003 and suffered a heart attack two years later as he came agonisingly close to the summit of Everest.

He has also run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days in 2003 and climbed the treacherous north face of the Eiger in 2007.