Diana: Not a Simple Woman, Not a Simple Death

By Vincent Walker

The 31st of August 1997 was a warm night in Paris, France. A large black Mercedes S280 sedan suddenly collided with the 13th pillar in the Alma tunnel at 12:25 am. Three of the four passengers in the car died due to injuries sustained from the violent crash. This car wreck stands out because the most famous woman of the 1980s and 1990s was traveling in that car and was pronounced dead nearly four hours later from injuries caused by it.

Diana Francis Spencer, more commonly know as Princess Diana to the world, was unmarried for one year and one day at the time of her death, following a public and messy divorce on August 30, 1996 from Prince Charles, the prince in line to the throne of England. The marriage ended due to cheating and other differences, however, Diana did not go away quietly. 

No longer Her Royal Highness, she still had a huge amount of public interest and she used her fame to bring attention to the public many things in the world that people had little awareness of. She was the first celebrity photographed holding hands with an Aids victim; she also made head lines for the work she did in Africa with land mine victims and led the world wide campaign to end the use of land mines. She almost succeeded in that goal , however, the treaty fell apart in September 1997 following Diana’s death.

Diana used her celebrity for good, however, the palace did not see it as that; the queen put out a statement calling her a “loose cannon.” Diana’s life had many up and downs; during one particular rough time in her marriage she sat at her desk and created a letter should her untimely death occur. Diana indicated in this letter that she feared her husband was “planning an accident in my car.”  Diana famously stated in a BBC interview that she would never be queen, but did not give a reason as to why; perhaps she did know her end was soon to come.
          
Death conspiracies are all too common among celebrity deaths, however, Diana’s cause of death has never been settled . In 2007, after ten years of conspiracies and public outcry, the British High Courts opened an inquiry and found the death to be an “unlawful killing.” Years after this, in 2013, the court reopened the case into Diana’s death, based on questions that had never been answered about the crash. Questions like why had the CCTV cameras in the tunnel stopped working just 30 minutes before the crash. Also why had the blood samples of Henry Paul, the driver of the car, later found out to be on the pay roll of the British government, been tampered with.

Other questions included why did it take two hours for the ambulance to drive to a hospital a few minutes from the crash?  Did the French medical system let Diana die? The hospital did make a statement that they could have done more to help but did not want to risk being responsible for putting the Princess in a wheel chair.

Or was it the paparazzis’ fault for chasing the Mercedes into the tunnel and snapping photos of Diana as she lay dying? No matter the case, a healthy 36-year-old iconic princess is dead. And, unfortunately, many charities and public issues possibly being resolved after being bought into the public eye by Diana died that night in Paris too. Hopefully, after over 16 years, the reasons for the death of Diana will not be a closed case.