Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Airbag theory in Diana crash

John Lichfield,Paris
Thursday 05 February 1998 01:02 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

A prematurely opening airbag may have caused the accident which killed Diana, Princess of Wales, according to a new theory which is under serious consideration by French investigators.

A doctor who studied the injuries suffered by the only survivor, bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, believes that the airbags in the Mercedes were already part-inflated before the car slammed into a pillar in an underpass in central Paris in August. If so, the bags may have been triggered wrongly by an earlier impact, possibly a glancing collision with a slower car. This would help to explain why the driver, Henri Paul, lost control and crashed at high speed.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in