Diana's "last-minute" car switch before crash

[Mule]

Diana's "last-minute" car switch before crash
Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:57 AM GMT





By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - Princess Diana made a last-minute switch of cars before the high-speed drive through Paris that ended with her death in an underpass crash, official documents show.

The papers, released late on Tuesday under freedom of information laws, gave conflicting reasons for the change in cars by Diana and her lover Dodi al Fayed before their deaths in the early hours of August 31, 1997.

In one document written three weeks after the crash, Britain's ambassador to France, Michael Jay, said it was a "last-minute change of mind aimed at diverting the awaiting paparazzi".

But two other memos, written by unnamed officials, said the couple's hire car had failed to start as they attempted to evade journalists outside the Paris Ritz hotel where they had been staying.

"Because, apparently, their getaway car failed to start, they got into another nearby car driven by a Ritz driver," one memo said.

"This car drove at high speed, followed by journalists, until the accident in the tunnel under the Pont d'Alma."

BLOOD TESTS

Jay's note reported how the British pathologist hired by the al Fayed family had challenged initial blood tests which showed the car's driver Henri Paul, also killed in the crash, had been three times over the legal alcohol limit.

French authorities conducted a third test, including a sample of fluid from the white of Paul's eye that confirmed the alcohol level and showed that he was on anti-depressants.

The documents showed how in the days after Diana's death officials in London fretted over the mounting cost of her funeral.

One official wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair's office promising that his department would "try to keep costs as low as possible".

Another said the probable 5 million pound cost was "scarcely a deck on the Royal Yacht", referring to a recent government decision to scrap the royal family's ship "Britannia".

The circumstances of the crash still cause controversy.

John Stevens, the ex London police Commissioner, is investigating allegations Diana's death was not an accident at the request of the Royal Coroner Michael Burgess.

Dodi's father, Harrods store owner Mohammed al Fayed, has alleged the couple were murdered by British secret services because their relationship was embarrassing the royal family.

The claim was dismissed last year by Stella Rimington, former head of the domestic spy agency MI5.

Diana's marriage to Prince Charles broke down in 1992 and later ended in divorce.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/news...TAIN-DIANA.xml

[4me2]

Certainly adds another twist to the story and will arm the Conspiracy theorists .