Lady Diana’s Death

By Dr Khalid Siddiqui
Ohio

Lady Diana’s 28 th death anniversary is round the corner. So, it seems appropriate to recap the events of that fateful night. (In 2005, I visited all relevant locations in Paris linked to her tragic accident.)

Diana’s car left Ritz Hotel, located at Place (square) Vendome, little after midnight on August 31, 1997. Place Vendome doesn’t look that impressive but it is one of the most expensive areas of the city. Dodi Fayed, Diana’s boyfriend, owned the Ritz Hotel. A large section of the building complex is owned by the Sultan of Brunei. The central column is topped by the statue of Napoleon. The square is located in the northeastern part of the city.

Their car was heading for Dodi Fayed’s apartment at 1 rue Arsene Houssaye near Arc de Triomphe. A direct route would have been to head west on Champs Elysees but, to avoid the paparazzi, driver Henri Paul took a long circuitous route. 

 So, he went southwest towards the Seine River and turned right on Cours la Reine leading to Voie Georges Pompidou (Georges Pompidou Expressway). The expressway turns into a tunnel under de l’Alma Place (square), a crowded huge area located at the north entrance to the de l’Alma Pont (bridge). So the tunnel is neither under the bridge nor under the river. It is just an express lane on the right (north) bank of River Seine, under de l’Alma Square. It is meant to bypass the heavy traffic above it in the square.

When I visited the square it was quiet as it was partially closed for construction. The river and the bridge are on the left side of the square. In the photograph, the Flame of Liberty is barely visible in the northwest corner of the square.

At the beginning of the video of the tunnel, the Flame of Liberty monument is visible in the northwest corner of the Square. As seen in the video, it is a four-lane expressway separated in the middle by the columns that support the roof. Diana’s car hit column # 13. There are some rumors that it first hit a white Fiat before hitting the column. Watch the video.

https://youtu.be/Vyf7tobUvhs

The car was traveling at twice the speed limit in the tunnel. None of them was wearing seat-belts. The official cause of the accident was attributed to Henri’s intoxication, reckless driving, speeding, and effects of prescription drugs.

Setting aside the conspiracy theories, many questions have been raised from the medical point of view. Why did it take the emergency squad an hour to put her in the ambulance? Why was she taken to Salpetriere Hospital which was four miles away, and on the other side to the river? Watch the video.

https://youtu.be/5aHyGRelxcw

There were five big hospitals much closer: Cochin Hospital, the Hotel (hospital) Dieu, Lariboisiere, Val de Grace and the American Hospital. I have seen Hotel Dieu. It is a big and very prestigious hospital, located next to Notre Dame. Drs Dupuytren and Gilbert of Dupuytren Contracture and Gilbert Syndrome fame, respectively, had worked there. And why did it take the ambulance 43 minutes to cover a four-mile distance with hardly any traffic on the roads? Val de Grace is a military hospital and has a helicopter always ready for emergencies. It was never requested.  

She died in the hospital two hours later.

The Memorial

The Flame of Liberty is a full-scale replica of the torch of the Statue of Liberty. It is made of copper covered with gold-leaf mounted on a pedestal of gray-black marble. It was offered to Paris in 1989 by the International Herald Tribune as part of the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the English-language newspaper in Paris. After a protracted period of negotiations, it was decided that the Flame would be placed at the northwestern corner of de l’Alma Square. The monument was dedicated on May 10, 1989, by Jaques Chirac. The sculpture was soon forgotten.

After Diana’s death people used to gather at the Square mourning her death. They would leave behind bouquets and cards at the square. Slowly and slowly the visitors started placing flowers, cards, candles and photographs of Diana; and fly-posting commemorative items at the base of the sculpture. They also started attaching love locks to the chain around the monument. So, eight years after its dedication in 1989, the monument became an unofficial memorial for Diana. In 2018, the Council of Paris officially voted to name the area around the Flame of Liberty as Place Diana (Diana Square). Most people who come here think that it was built for her. See the photographs and watch the video.

https://youtu.be/W8lQHOikPwM