On Saturday, August 30, 1997, Diana left Sardinia on a private jet and arrived in Paris with Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, son of businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. They stopped there on their way to London, spending nine days together on Mohamed's Jonikal yacht on the French and Italian Riviera. They were meant to stay there for the night. Mohamed was and still is the owner of the Hôtel Ritz Paris and resides in an apartment on Rue Arsène Houssaye, a short distance from the hotel, just off the Champs Elysées. Henri Paul, Ritz's deputy director of security, was instructed to drive a black 1996 Mercedes-Benz W140 S-Class rented to avoid the paparazzi; A decoy vehicle leaves the Ritz first from the main entrance on Place Vendôme, attracting crowds of photographers. Diana and Fayed then departed from the back entrance of the hotel, Rue Cambon, at around 00:20 on 31 August CEST (22:20 on 30 August UTC), bound for the apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye. They did this to avoid the nearly thirty photographers waiting in front of the hotel. Diana and Fayed were the rear passengers; Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family's personal protection team, is in the front passenger seat (right). The occupants of the vehicle were not wearing seat belts. After leaving Rue Cambon and crossing the Place de la Concorde, they drove along the Cours la Reine and Cours Albert 1er - the causeway along the right bank of the Seine - into the Place de l'Alma tunnel.
Accident:
At 00:23, Paul lost control of his vehicle at the entrance to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel. The car hit the wall on the right and then veered to the left of the two-lane lane before colliding head-on into the 13th pillar supporting the roof. The vehicle was traveling at an estimated speed of 105 km/h (65 mph) - double the tunnel's 50 km/h (31 mph) speed limit. It then turned and hit the stone wall of the tunnel backwards, finally stopping. The impact caused significant damage, especially to the front half of the vehicle, as there was (and still is) no guardrail between the pillars to prevent this. Witnesses who arrived shortly after the crash reported smoke. Witnesses also reported that photographers on motorcycles "swept over the Mercedes sedan before it entered the tunnel." Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul died soon after, Diana died of her injuries, Trevor Rees-Jones was the only survivor. Initial media reports said Diana's car collided with a pole at 190 km/h (120 mph), and the speedometer's hand was stuck at that position; It was later announced that the car's speed at impact was 95–110 km/h (59–68 mph), twice as fast as the 50 km/h (31 mph) speed limit. ). In 1999, a French investigation concluded that the Mercedes had collided with another vehicle (a white Fiat Uno) in the tunnel. The Fiat driver was never accurately traced, although many believe the driver was Le Van Thanh - a Frenchman of Vietnamese descent. The specific vehicle is not identified. The investigation found that the cause of the crash was attributed to "absolute negligent driving towards the following vehicles [the paparazzi] and the Mercedes driver Henri Paul." Nine photographers, who tracked Diana and Dodi in 1997, have been charged with manslaughter in France. France's "highest court" dropped the charges in 2002. Three photographers who photographed the aftermath of the crash on August 31, 1997 had their photos confiscated and put on trial for crime of invasion of privacy for taking pictures through the open door of a crashed vehicle. The photographer, part of the "paparazzi," was acquitted in 2003.
