Diana, Princess of Wales, suffered fatal injuries in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France, in the early hours of 31st August 1997.
She was a rear passenger in a Mercedes limousine provided by the Hôtel Ritz, along with film producer Dodi Fayed, with whom she was in a romantic relationship. The car was being followed at high speed by paparazzi and collided with a concrete pillar in the tunnel.
36-year-old Diana was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital where she died of her injuries. Fayed died at the scene, along with the car’s driver, Henri Paul, deputy head of security at the Ritz. Trevor Rees-Jones, a bodyguard in the front passenger seat, survived with serious injuries.
French investigators concluded that Paul was responsible for the crash, having lost control of the vehicle at speed while intoxicated by alcohol and under the effects of prescription drugs. The Flame of Liberty monument above the tunnel’s western end has become an unofficial memorial to Diana, and the surrounding square is now officially named place Diana.
