Wikipedia • During the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died from injuries sustained earlier that night in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed, Diana’s partner, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were found dead inside the car.
During the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died from injuries sustained earlier that night in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed, Diana’s partner, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were found dead inside the car. Dodi’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was seriously injured but was the only survivor of the crash.
In 1999, a French investigation found that Paul lost control of the vehicle at high speed while intoxicated by alcohol and under the effects of prescription drugs, and concluded that he was solely responsible for the crash. He was the deputy head of security at the Hôtel Ritz Paris at the time of the crash and had earlier goaded paparazzi waiting for Diana and Fayed outside the hotel.[3] Antidepressants and traces of an anti-psychotic in his blood might have worsened Paul’s inebriation.[4] In 2008, a jury at the British inquest, Operation Paget, returned a verdict of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving by Paul and the following paparazzi vehicles.[5] Some media reports concluded that Rees-Jones survived because he was wearing a seat belt, but later investigations revealed that none of the occupants of the car were wearing one.[6]
Diana was 36 years old when she died.[7] Her death sparked an outpouring of public grief in the United Kingdom and the world,[8] and her televised funeral was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people.[9]
