Why they died — 04/10/08

Sat, May 17 2008

— Almost 11 years after Princess Diana died in a traffic accident in Paris, a six-month investigation by a coroner’s jury in Great Britain has reached the most obvious explanation for the deaths of Diana and her male companion, Dodi Al Fayed: Speed, too much alcohol and aggressive pursuit by the ever-present paparazzi hoping to snap a photo of the immensely popular princess.
In other words, with the exception of the role the paparazzi played in the accident, Diana died in an accident caused by the same sort of foolish, reckless behavior that costs the lives of thousands of far more ordinary people each year.
The jury concluded that the car in which Diana was riding was traveling at speeds exceeding 100 mph and that the driving of chauffeur Henri Paul was impaired by alcohol. The jury termed the deaths “unlawful killing” but the person most responsible — Paul — also was killed by the Aug. 31, 1997, crash.
The investigation was not a whitewash. It cost British taxpayers almost $20 million and included an 800-page police report and the testimony of 252 witnesses taken over 91 days.
The jury’s final report also is unlikely to satisfy Dodi Al Fayed’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, who has spent more than a decade telling anyone who will listen that the accident was actually a murder. Without offering a shred of evidence, he has claimed the deaths were ordered by Prince Philip and carried out by MI6. But it doesn’t stop there.
According to a list compiled by the Associated Press, Al Fayed has blamed the couple’s bodyguards, who were employees of Al Fayed; then-Prime Minister Tony Blair; Diana’s sister and a brother-in-law; the British ambassador to Paris; the French medical service; two French toxicologists; French and British police; and the intelligence agencies of Britain, France and the United States.
One would hope the inquest would put an end to questions surrounding Diana’s death. But those who believe that such an extraordinary person could die in such an ordinary way are not likely to accept the jury’s conclusions. Al Fayed has already denounced the jury’s report. Never let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.
Oh, the jury draws one other conclusion about the cause of the deaths that mirrors countless other needless deaths in other accidents: It found unanimously that the princess and Dodi Al Fayed might be alive today if they had been wearing their seat belts. Even the famous need to buckle up.