Paper Claims New Video Evidence on White Car Chasing Diana
February 3, 1998 - 0:0
LONDON A British tabloid said recently it has obtained video footage of a speeding white car outside the Ritz Hotel chasing Princess Diana's Mercedes minutes before it crashed. The Mirror said the car is not a Fiat Uno, which has been sought by French investigators, but is almost certainly a Citroen Ax which is very similar in size and style. The video was shot by an unidentified foreign couple on vacation in Paris who were unaware of its importance, the paper said.
The Mirror said it is handing the video to French authorities and had shown two still photographs to Judge Herve Stephan, who is presiding over the inquiry into the August 31 crash that killed the princess, her companion Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul. This is important new evidence into my investigations, Stephan was quoted as saying. The paper said he gave the photographs to French police.
The Mirror said the video shows the white car parked outside the front of the Ritz Hotel minutes before Diana and Dodi left through a rear entrance. In a dramatic sequence, the paper said, the car screeches away from the side of the road to pursue a decoy vehicle used to dupe photographers trying to pursue Diana. The vehicle then spins full circle to join the paparazzi chase and drives off at speed the wrong way down a one-way street, the Mirror said.
Part of the Citroen's rear license plate is visible but the video image appears to be too far away and the car's speed makes it impossible to read the numbers, the paper said. Key factors in the crash are believed to be alcohol Paul was legally drunk and excessive speed. But French authorities have also been searching for a mystery second car that may have been involved.
A 400-page confidential French police report submitted to Stephan in late December includes testimony that bolsters the theory that Diana's Mercedes sideswiped a small car just before losing control and crashing into a pillar in the Pont de l'Alma traffic tunnel. Two witnesses quoted in the report say they saw a white Fiat Uno zigzagging out of the tunnel at the time of the crash, and were able to describe the driver as well as his backseat passenger: a large dog.
The car's exhaust pipe was making a loud noise, as if it had been damaged, and the driver was driving abnormally zigzagging and then cutting off the couple's car, they were quoted as saying. Police have so far checked out more than 3,000 white Fiat Unos, with no luck. Buttressing witness accounts has been physical evidence found in the tunnel: shards of the Mercedes' headlight mixed with shards of a Fiat Uno's tail light, and traces of white paint on the right side of the wrecked Mercedes. The Mirror said the video footage raises the possibility that French authorities have been searching for the wrong car.
While it would appear that Diana's Mercedes was involved in a collision with a Fiat Uno, the Mercedes may have hit a point in the tunnel where a Fiat Uno had crashed earlier, picking up specks of paint left by the impact, the paper said. The Mirror said there is also a possibility that the Mercedes may have been involved in a minor scrape with a white Fiat Uno before the fatal accident.
(AP)
The Mirror said it is handing the video to French authorities and had shown two still photographs to Judge Herve Stephan, who is presiding over the inquiry into the August 31 crash that killed the princess, her companion Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul. This is important new evidence into my investigations, Stephan was quoted as saying. The paper said he gave the photographs to French police.
The Mirror said the video shows the white car parked outside the front of the Ritz Hotel minutes before Diana and Dodi left through a rear entrance. In a dramatic sequence, the paper said, the car screeches away from the side of the road to pursue a decoy vehicle used to dupe photographers trying to pursue Diana. The vehicle then spins full circle to join the paparazzi chase and drives off at speed the wrong way down a one-way street, the Mirror said.
Part of the Citroen's rear license plate is visible but the video image appears to be too far away and the car's speed makes it impossible to read the numbers, the paper said. Key factors in the crash are believed to be alcohol Paul was legally drunk and excessive speed. But French authorities have also been searching for a mystery second car that may have been involved.
A 400-page confidential French police report submitted to Stephan in late December includes testimony that bolsters the theory that Diana's Mercedes sideswiped a small car just before losing control and crashing into a pillar in the Pont de l'Alma traffic tunnel. Two witnesses quoted in the report say they saw a white Fiat Uno zigzagging out of the tunnel at the time of the crash, and were able to describe the driver as well as his backseat passenger: a large dog.
The car's exhaust pipe was making a loud noise, as if it had been damaged, and the driver was driving abnormally zigzagging and then cutting off the couple's car, they were quoted as saying. Police have so far checked out more than 3,000 white Fiat Unos, with no luck. Buttressing witness accounts has been physical evidence found in the tunnel: shards of the Mercedes' headlight mixed with shards of a Fiat Uno's tail light, and traces of white paint on the right side of the wrecked Mercedes. The Mirror said the video footage raises the possibility that French authorities have been searching for the wrong car.
While it would appear that Diana's Mercedes was involved in a collision with a Fiat Uno, the Mercedes may have hit a point in the tunnel where a Fiat Uno had crashed earlier, picking up specks of paint left by the impact, the paper said. The Mirror said there is also a possibility that the Mercedes may have been involved in a minor scrape with a white Fiat Uno before the fatal accident.
(AP)