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| The westbound traffic lane in the underpass |
The Final Drive
The ruse worked only in part. As the Range Rover departed, some of the photographers did follow it for a time. But as the Mercedes set off down Rue Cambon it was spotted and soon had its own accompaniment of photographers on motorcycles.Princess Diana was the nearside (righthand) rear passenger - the usual seat for a VIP. Dodi Fayed sat on her left; the bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the front seat passenger. He put on his seatbelt; it appears none of the others strapped themselves in.
The idea of throwing off the paparazzi is curious, whatever Mr Paul's driving skills. Anyone who has ridden a motorcycle knows that, in a built up area such as this, even a fast car will make little progress alongside even a modest two-wheeler.
The one exception might be on a straight stretch long enough to display the car's greater speed to advantage.
The Mercedes headed down Rue Cambon, round the anti-clockwise one way system in Place de la Concorde, and onto the right bank of the Seine, heading west.
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| Police cordon off the scene of the crash |
At the end of Cours Albert 1er there is a dip and a hump in the road just before it swings to the left and drops sharply into a four lane underpass at Place de l'Alma.
The marks of the initial impact are a little way inside the underpass against the nearside wall - on the car's right. The S280 then went left, across the two westbound traffic lanes.
Its front, a little left of centre, hit the 13th of the central pillars separating the two carriageways of the tunnel. The two front airbags deployed; the whole front end of the car crumpled, as it is designed to do.
Braking had forced the front down, so the impact threw the back upwards, crushing the front part of the roof.
Momentum made the car spin round before coming to rest, facing back the way it had come, its horn blaring.
The driver and Dodi Fayed were dead. The other man in the front, Mr Rees-Jones, suffered appalling injuries to his lower face and his chest. His life was saved probably by the seatbelt and the airbag.
Princess Diana was in the gap between the front and rear seats, unconscious with more severe head and chest injuries than anyone realised in the immediate aftermath.
What happened just before and after the crash is perhaps the most disputed part of the story.
