Death of Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. Her partner, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene. Their bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, survived with serious injuries. A French investigation found that Paul, who lost control of the vehicle at high speed while intoxicated by alcohol and under the effects of prescription drugs, was solely responsible for the crash.

About Death of Diana, Princess of Wales in brief

Summary Death of Diana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. Her partner, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene. Their bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, survived with serious injuries. In 1999, a French investigation found that Paul, who lost control of the vehicle at high speed while intoxicated by alcohol and under the effects of prescription drugs, was solely responsible for the crash. In 2008, the jury at a British inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving by Paul and the paparazzi for following vehicles. Diana was 36 years old when she died. Her death caused an unprecedented outpouring of public grief in the United Kingdom and worldwide, and her funeral was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people. The Royal Family were criticised in the press for their reaction to Diana’s death. Public interest in Diana has remained high and she has retained regular press coverage in the years after her death. The car was travelling at an estimated 105 kmh – over twice the tunnel’s 50 kmH speed limit. It hit the stone wall of the tunnel and spun backwards, finally coming to a stop. Witnesses reported that photographers on motorcycles on motorcycles tried to help, tried to open the doors and help the victims, while some of them took pictures of them after the accident. Witnesses also reported that the photographers, who had been driving slower and were some distance behind the Mercedes, were still in the wrecked car.

The occupants were not wearing seat belts. Early media reports claimed that he was wearing a seat belt, but further investigations revealed that none of the occupants of the car were wearing their seat belts, and that the driver was not wearing his seat belt. The driver was the deputy head of security at the Hôtel Ritz Paris. He was 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. They did this to avoid the nearly 30 photographers waiting in front of the hotel, just off the Avenue des Champs Elysées. After leaving the Rue Cambon, 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. At 00: 23, the car struck the right-hand 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. They were the rear passengers; Trevor Ree Jones, a member of the Fayed family’s personal protection team, was in the front passenger seat. They had stopped there en route to London, having spent the preceding nine days together on board Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al-Fayed’s, yacht Jonikal on the French and Italian Riviera.