British Inquiry: Diana's Death Was an ‘Accident'
LONDON — A British police inquiry released yesterday concluded that the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend in a 1997 Paris car crash were a "tragic accident" and that allegations of murder are unfounded.
The report also said Diana was not pregnant, that she was not engaged to marry Dodi Fayed, and that their chauffeur was drunk and driving at more than 60 mph — twice the local speed limit — when their car crashed while being chased by photographers.
The inquiry, which largely confirmed previous findings by French investigators, also said there was no reason to suspect the involvement of the royal family in the death of Prince Charles's former wife.
"Our conclusion is that, on all the evidence available at this time, there was no conspiracy to murder any of the occupants of the car. This was a tragic accident,"said Lord John Stevens, former chief of the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation of the deaths of Diana, 36, and Fayed, 42.
"There was no conspiracy, and no cover-up," Lord Stevens added.
The couple was killed along with chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997, while being chased by photographers. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was seriously injured.
Paul was drunk, with a blood-alcohol level twice the British legal limit, and driving at twice the local speed limit before the crash, Lord Stevens said.
"We can say with certainty that the car hit the curb just before the 13th pillar of the central reservation in the Alma underpass, at a speed of 61 to 63 miles a hour," Lord Stevens said."Nothing in the very rapid sequence of events we have reconstructed supports the allegation of conspiracy to murder."
Fayed's father, Mohammed al Fayed, has alleged that the couple was killed as a result of a plot by the establishment, including British intelligence agencies and Prince Philip, her former father-in-law.
In an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio yesterday before the findings were released, Mr. al Fayed rejected the report's conclusions, which newspapers had predicted.
