22 Years Ago Today; Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed, driver Henri Paul die in car accident in Paris

[Dennis Donovan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Diana,_Princess_of_Wales


Flowers left outside Kensington Palace in tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales

On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died in hospital as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes S280, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene. A fourth passenger in the car, bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, was seriously injured but survived.

Although the media blamed the behaviour of the paparazzi who followed the car, a French judicial investigation in 1999 found that the crash was caused by Paul, who lost control of the Mercedes at high speed while he was intoxicated and under the effects of prescription drugs. As a result, it was confirmed that no criminal charges would be issued against any of the pursuing photographers.

Paul was the deputy head of security at the Hôtel Ritz at the time of the crash and had goaded the paparazzi waiting outside the hotel earlier. His inebriation may have been made worse by anti-depressants and traces of an anti-psychotic in his body. The investigation concluded that the photographers were not near the Mercedes when it crashed. After hearing evidence at the British inquest in 2008, a jury returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" by Paul and the paparazzi pursuing the car.

Diana's death caused a substantial outpouring of worldwide grief, including numerous floral tributes, and her funeral was watched by an estimated 2 billion people. The Royal Family were criticised in the press for their reaction to Diana's death.

Circumstances
Events preceding the crash


A car similar to that involved in the accident.

On Saturday, 30 August 1997, Diana left Sardinia on a private jet and arrived in Paris with Dodi Fayed, the son of Mohamed Al-Fayed. They had stopped there en route to London, having spent the preceding nine days together on board Mohamed Al-Fayed's yacht Jonikal on the French and Italian Riviera. They had intended to stay there for the night. Mohamed Al-Fayed was and is the owner of the Hôtel Ritz Paris. He also owned an apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye, a short distance from the hotel, just off the Avenue des Champs Elysées.

Henri Paul, the deputy head of security at the Ritz Hotel, had been instructed to drive the hired black 1994 Mercedes-Benz W140 in order to elude the paparazzi; a decoy vehicle left the Ritz first from the main entrance on Place Vendôme, attracting a throng of photographers. Diana and Fayed then departed from the hotel's rear entrance, Rue Cambon at around 00:20 on 31 August CEST (22:20 on 30 August UTC), heading for the apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye. They did this to avoid the nearly 30 photographers waiting in the front of the hotel. They were the rear passengers; Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family's personal protection team, was in the (right) front passenger seat. It was believed that Diana and Dodi were not wearing seat belts. After leaving the Rue Cambon and crossing the Place de la Concorde, they drove along Cours la Reine and Cours Albert 1er – the embankment road along the right bank of the River Seine – into the Place de l'Alma underpass.

The crash
At 00:23, Paul lost control of the vehicle at the entrance to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel. The car struck the righthand wall and then swerved to the left of the two-lane carriageway before it collided head-on with the 13th pillar that supported the roof. The car was travelling at an estimated speed of 105 km/h (65 mph). It then spun and hit the stone wall of the tunnel backwards, finally coming to a stop. The impact caused substantial damage, particularly to the front half of the vehicle, as there was no guard rail between the pillars to prevent this. Witnesses arriving shortly after the accident reported smoke. Witnesses also reported that photographers on motorcycles "swarmed the Mercedes sedan before it entered the tunnel."

The aftermath


The entrance to the Pont de l'Alma Tunnel, the site where Diana was fatally injured

As the four occupants lay in the wrecked car, the photographers, who had been driving slower and were some distance behind the Mercedes, reached the scene. The photographers were on motorcycles. Some rushed to help, tried to open the doors and help the victims, while some of them took pictures. Airbags were deployed. Police arrived on scene around 10 minutes after the crash at 00:30 and an ambulance was on site five minutes after the police, according to witnesses. France Info radio reported that one photographer was beaten by witnesses who were horrified by the scene. Five of the photographers were taken into custody. Later, two others were detained and around 20 rolls of film were taken from the photographers. Police also impounded their vehicles. Firemen also arrived to help remove the victims.

Still conscious, Rees-Jones had suffered multiple serious facial injuries and a head contusion. The front occupants' airbags had functioned normally. The occupants were not wearing seat belts. Diana, who had been sitting in the right rear passenger seat, was still conscious. Critically injured, Diana was reported to murmur repeatedly, "Oh my God," and after the photographers and other helpers were pushed away by police, "Leave me alone." In June 2007, the Channel 4 documentary Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel claimed that the first person to touch Diana was Dr. Maillez, who chanced upon the scene. He reported that Diana had no visible injuries but was in shock. Diana was removed from the car at 01:00. She then went into cardiac arrest and following external cardiopulmonary resuscitation, her heart started beating again. She was moved to the SAMU ambulance at 01:18, left the scene at 01:41 and arrived at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital at 02:06.

Fayed had been sitting in the left rear passenger seat and was shortly afterwards pronounced dead. Paul was declared dead on removal from the wreckage. Both were taken to the Institut Médico-Légal (IML), the Paris mortuary, not to a hospital. Paul was later found to have a blood alcohol level of 1.75 grams per litre of blood—about 3.5 times the legal limit in France.

Despite attempts to save her, Diana's internal injuries were too extensive: her heart had been displaced to the right side of the chest, which tore the pulmonary vein and the pericardium. Despite lengthy resuscitation attempts, including internal cardiac massage, she died at 04:00. Anesthesiologist Bruno Riou announced her death at 06:00 at a news conference held at the hospital.

Later that morning, Jean-Pierre Chevènement (French Minister of the Interior) visited the hospital with French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. At around 17:00, Diana's former husband, Charles, Prince of Wales, and her two older sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, arrived in Paris. The group visited the hospital along with French President Jacques Chirac and thanked the doctors for trying to save her life. Prince Charles accompanied Diana's body home on Sunday. Her body was taken to the Hammersmith and Fulham mortuary in London for a post-mortem examination later that day.

Initial media reports stated Diana's car had collided with the pillar at 190 km/h (120 mph), and that the speedometer's needle had jammed at that position. It was later announced the car's speed on collision was about 95–110 km/h (60–70 mph). The car was certainly travelling much faster than the speed limit of 50 km/h (31 mph). In 1999, a French investigation concluded the Mercedes had come into contact with another vehicle (a white Fiat Uno) in the tunnel. The driver of that vehicle has never been conclusively traced, although many believe the driver of the Fiat was Le Van Thanh but the specific vehicle has not been identified.

It was remarked by Robin Cook, the British Foreign Secretary, that if the accident had been caused in part by being hounded by paparazzi, it would be "doubly tragic." Diana's brother also blamed tabloid media for her death. An 18-month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the crash was caused by Paul, who lost control at high speed while intoxicated.

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[CurtEastPoint]

1. car accident

[CottonBear]

2. If she had been wearing her seat belt, she would probably have survived.

Sigh. What an awful tragedy caused by a drunk driver.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. Yep. Maybe not Dodi since he was on the side of the impact...

...but Diana would've survived.

[treestar]

8. Can't imagine why should would not use the seat belt

Who doesn't do that nowadays? I have met people who insist they fear being trapped in the car, but it is pretty well known that they save lives.

[Polybius]

10. Wasn't she in the back seat?

The vast majority of adults in the back seat don't use a seat belt, sad to say. Also, is '97 still considered nowadays?

[treestar]

14. well OK, but it was the modern era

people were using carseats for babies by then - it was not like the 50s where people piled into the car and the mom held the baby on her lap.

I did not know that about back seat passengers. Are they any safer? Still seems seat belts are there and not to use them is just taking an unnecessary risk.

[Ms. Toad]

16. Because back seats are often not used primarily to transport people,

when they are, the seatbelts are not accessible (or not working).

We ran into this just this past weekend. We are habitual seatbelt users - but the car we were driving typically carries no more than 2. On the rare occasion it carries 3, the 3rd passenger sits on the passenger side. For some odd reason, my spouse decided to sit behind the driver over the weekend - and the seatbelt was not functional.

I also recently rode in my parents car. Even though the two main seatbelts could be located and were functional, the one for the middle seat was nowhere to be found (without ripping the seats apart to dig it out).

My spouse switched at the first rest stop, and we were driving about a quarter of a mile in my parents' car. So - to my knowledge - both are still non-functional (or non-locatable).

[treestar]

18. True though you can guess for sure they were in that limo

my dad, when we were kids, was a fanatic on safety issues. He would not move the car without everyone's seat belt on and that was way before the state made it mandatory.

[Ms. Toad]

24. I was responding to the general question of why people in the back seat

were less likely to be wearing seat belts, having just experienced it in two different cars.

We still have to pester my parents to wear seat belts - my car seat was a plywood box, with an angled seat in it (a precursor to a baby carrier before there were commercial ones). No way to attach it to the car, since most back seats didn't have belts in that era.

But our daughter grew up believing the car couldn't move until everyone was belted in.

[underpants]

5. Killed by fame

[underpants]

4. Never forget it. Went by the restaurant my buddy was managing and saw it on the TV

We were going out for the night and I was just sitting there having a beer.

All I could think was "Well THIS is going to be a drama fest". Sorry to be cynical but I knew there were day upon day of people crying on TV coming our way.

[Dennis Donovan]

7. I might've told this story on DU before...

On the night of the accident, I had my TV tuned to CNN, my shortwave radio (a 1937 RCA U-109) tuned to the BBC World Service and AOL on my computer. When news broke that she had died, I first heard it on the (then 60 year old technology) radio, followed 30 seconds later on the (then 50 year old technology) TV, with the 3 yr old technology of AOL/internet coming in a distant 3rd @ 2 minutes after hearing it on the BBC.

Of course, it makes sense the Beeb would have it before the US media, but it still makes me chuckle that my old shortwave radio broke it first.

[not_the_one]

12. So sorry that our tears were nothing more than a drama fest.

Hope you at least finished your beer.

[Chemisse]

6. Thank-you. I never knew some of these details.

Diana was such a tragic figure. She evoked our compassion and empathy, and stole a tiny piece of our hearts over the years. So it was terribly sad when she died.

[Bluepinky]

9. I didn't know all of this, thank you for posting.

I remember feeling so sad this had happened. Diana was a modern princess, relatable to many people. She died too soon. Bet she would have hated Trump and would have spoken out against him, which would have pissed him off.

[not_the_one]

11. the three deaths that hit me like a kick in the gut were

John Lennon
Princess Diana
JFK Jr

Princess Diana was a breath of fresh air. She was one of the first of the famous who openly and caringly touched people with aids, for all to see.

I still get tears in my eyes when thinking about these three, and what may have been...

Just Imagine...

[Ms. Toad]

17. Different Era -

JFK, RFK, MLK Jr.

The three you mentioned are distant also rans, from my perspective. Sad, but nowhere near the loss of the three in my youth.

[RobinA]

20. Deaths

This is kind of insulting. People can be strongly affected by the death of a person who isn’t necessarily the world’s foremost mover and shaker. Grief isn’t a humanitarian medal, it’s an individual reaction to, among other things, what the deceased person symbolized to the griever.

[Ms. Toad]

23. I'm not discounting the grief.

but I've lived through all 6, so I have some basis to compare the relative impact.

[UniteFightBack]

13. My Mom died the year before. I sure do remember where and who I was with when I heard this

awful, awful news. I felt such a kinship with William and Harry after that because it just really sucks to go through life without your mother.

[Dennis Donovan]

15. I was in the car when the news of the accident broke...

...on my way home from visiting a friend. I watched CNN, listened to the BBC World Service (via shortwave) and had my PC on AOL News. The news of her death broke first on the Beeb s/w, then CNN, and finally on the newest technology - the internet.

[RobinA]

21. I Get This

I was 5 when JFK died, I’m just a three months younger than Caroline. My sister is John Jr’s age. The president’s death didn’t mean a lot to me, but I was obsessed by the fact that those kid’s father died at work. I couldn’t imagine that or how they could handle it. I’ve felt for them ever since.

[Mc Mike]

19. Murdoch paparazzi pulled a hit.

For international fascista.

[MicaelS]

22. Fucking paparazzi are still to blame.

Always will be in my opinion. Harry and William have every right to hate them.