Who Killed Diana Docuseries

[Nadeed]

A new docuseries will be shown, Who Killed Diana? which will explore the circumstances surrounding the death of the Princess of Wales on August 31, 1997. It will feature rare and, in some cases, the first ever interviews with several key sources connected to Diana's death.

Who else will be watching this?

Agree. Out of all the reporting the seat belt not being worn wasn’t discussed fully at that time imho. There was a lot about the paparazzi, drunk driving, speed, the other car in the tunnel but not so much about not wearing a seat belt. It was a shocking event and most people can remember where they were when they heard the news of her death.

It happened before smartphones existed so all the news was on tv, ceefax and in the newspapers

Just as well really, @ButterCrackers; I've sometimes wondered (and tried to suppress!) just what it would have been like had social media been around at the time

As PPs have said it's all history now and was decided long ago, but the only two things I still occasionally think about is what led to Diana being embalmed quite so fast - in a large western hospital where cooling facilities would certainly have been available - and why there were inconsistencies over Henri Paul's blood tests

If anyone's still interested, the second one's well covered by pathologist Richard Shepherd in his book Unnatural Causes and it's quite a good read

Wasn't her embalming done in line with French procedures?

Also, Henri Paul's blood tests were very clear about the amount of alcohol in his system.

I'm not a lawyer and it's difficult to find anything now which doesn't bring in conspiracy theories and al Fayed's silly claims, but it's my understanding that the France need the next of kin's permission for an autopsy and it's unclear whether this was provided - hence Jean Monceau the pathologist being quoted as saying "If I had known at the time that it would lead to such investigations, to my being questioned so many times, I would have waited until the next Monday ... I would have waited until I would have received all the necessary official authorisations"

To my mind, faced with a massively high profile case like this and the inevitability of questions, officialdom can be expected to cover themselves by doing everything absolutely by the book, and I just sometimes wonder what caused them to depart from this

One of the tests had a large amount of carbon monoxide. And the tests suggest he was very drunk, while video shows him easily tying his shoelaces.

She should have had an autopsy.

He had a lot of alcohol in his bloodstream.
He was driving at speed and lost control.
Diana wasn't wearing a seatbelt.
Shoelaces are immaterial.

Too late to amend my mistake in saying Jeam Monceau was the pathologist - he was of course the embalmer

The questions around permission for this were contained in the Paget Report, which is a hell of a thing, but if anyone wants to scroll through it's in Charper 9: https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/news/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/14_12_06_diana_report.pdf

Being well over the alcohol limit for controlling a vehicle is not synonymous with being unable to perform simple tasks like tying shoelaces. It's a good job Diana's death was investigated extensively so that such simplistic thought processes can be discounted.

Exactly this.

Trevor Rhys Jones was wearing a seatbelt. That’s why he was the only survivor.

Absolutely. I’m no royalist by Diana will always be my princess!

I thought the French inquest revealed it wasn’t clear as to whether he was wearing one?

I’m going from memory as haven’t looked at the details for many years so happy to be corrected😊

Quite.

Especially given that heavy drinkers develop a tolerance to the effects of alcohol, so a level that, in some people, would have them falling-over-style drunk would have far less effect on a regular drinker.
I don't know if the driver was a heavy drinker or not, just making the point that there's not a set level at which, for example, someone couldn't tie their shoe laces.

I won't be.

Let us rest in peace.

Well who on earth could have predicted that posters who show very little reasoning when it comes to H+M are also Diana conspiracy theorists. Fancy that 🤷‍♀️

😁

QED.

Three people chose not to wear a seat belt and died. The one person wearing a seatbelt survived.

It’s a very persistent belief that Dana’s bodyguard was wearing his seatbelt - it was I think misreported at the time? The inquiry found no damage at all to his seatbelt, suggesting it was fully retracted at the time of the crash. Plus he suffered terrible head injuries when his head hit the windscreen, which definitely suggests he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

The two on the driver’s side of the car - Henry Paul and Dodi - were both killed instantly whereas the two on the other side both suffered horrible injuries, ultimately unsurvivable for Diana, but it seems that side of the car came off better on the crash, so it may have been as simple as where they were sitting.

Also, on the blood alcohol level, there’s a massive difference between being incapable of fine motor skills, and having drunk enough to dull your reaction and co-ordination skills and inhibit your judgement.

The latter are all things that matter a great deal when you enter a suburban tunnel down a slope at the same speed, or higher, you’d be driving on a motorway, and where slightly over-steering means you’ll be heading straight for a line of reinforced concrete pillars…

It's such a common fantasy, isn't it? Someone so famous can't possibly have died in a common car accident; it has to be something else, some conspiracy, something deeper.
Sometimes the truth is just what happened, happened.

If you read through the Paget report it’s like a grim version of Sliding Doors - there were so many small and seemingly insignificant decisions that meant that they ended up driving away from the Ritz that night and being involved in a tragic car accident with three of them dying. But sometimes, that’s what happens.

Thanks for the info @Serenster
I always had it in my mind that no-one was wearing a seatbelt.