Witness Tells Inquiry Of Swerving Motorcycle In Diana Crash
Posted October 22, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The final inquiry into the decade-old crash that claimed the life of Princess Diana continued Monday, with a witness describing a motorcycle swerving to avoid the wreckage of the car she was riding in with boyfriend Dodi Fayed.
Grigori Rassinier told the coroner’s inquest jury he was driving through Paris’ Pont d’Alma tunnel in the opposite direction when he saw a motorcycle emerge from smoke that filled the tunnel after the Mercedes slammed into a pillar.
The motorcycle “swerved as if it were avoiding the crashed car,” he said in the statement. “This motorcycle left very quickly after having executed the swerve,” Rassinier said. “… It seems improbable that the motorcycle stopped before setting off again. I think that the motorcycle simply had time to slow down or to brake very hard.”
The inquiry’s objective is to determine once and for all how Diana and Fayed died on Aug. 31, 1997 . The Mercedes’ driver, Henri Paul, also died in the crash, and it was later alleged that he was drunk at the time.
Several witnesses have recalled seeing motorcycles pursuing the couple’s car, though accounts have differed on how many bikes gave chase. Other witnesses, including a French couple who left the tunnel just before the crash, didn’t recall seeing any.
There were also some paparazzi seen on motorcycles that night, and a common theory is that Paul may have been trying to escape them while en route to Fayed’s apartment.
Testimony and documents from the inquest is being posted online.
Coroner’s Inquest Into Princess Diana’s Death Opens In Britain
Photo credit: PIERRE BOUSSEL/AFP/Getty Images
