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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Gabriella Clare

Princess Diana car crash investigator shares how she could have survived smash

This week will mark 25 years since Princess Diana died in a car crash while trying to escape the paparazzi in Paris - and one of the crash investigators has revealed how he thinks she could have survived.

At the time the world went into mourning and images of the wrecked car made headlines, shocking the world and sparking debate about what happened.

Conspiracy theories were rife and even to this day, there are still questions about what happened that night to Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed.

The inquest in 2008 concluded that they were unlawfully killed as a result of the negligent driving of their chauffeur Henri Paul, who had high levels of alcohol in his system, and reckless paparazzi who were pursuing them through Paris.

Tony Read believes the Diana could have been saved if they had been wearing a seatbelt (Alamy Stock Photo)
This week will mark 25 years since Princess Diana died in a car crash (PA)

At the time Forensic Collision Investigator Tony Read was called upon to investigate what happened and who was responsible.

Speaking to The Sun, he's now revealed the one thing he thinks would have saved the couple that night - seatbelts.

Neither Diana nor Dodi Al-Fayed were wearing their seatbelts at the time and were propelled at 65 miles an hour.

Tony said: "I’m firmly convinced that if both of the occupants had been wearing seatbelts they almost certainly would have survived - I have almost no doubt in my mind.

Forensic Collision Investigator Tony Read features in the four-part Channel 4 documentary series Investigating Diana: Death in Paris (Channel 4)

“The collision was survivable because [bodyguard] Trevor Rees-Jones survived."

He added: "It was a very unfortunate series of events, but if they'd been wearing their seatbelts, or if someone had put her seatbelt on for her, which is my understanding what she relied on, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion now."

The driver Henri Paul and Dodi Al-Fayed were pronounced dead at the scene.

Diana was rushed to the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital where doctors operated for two hours to save her life but were unable to get Diana's heart beating properly again.

The couple died in a car crash in Paris after being chased by paparazzi (Reuters)

Speaking in the four-part Channel 4 documentary series Investigating Diana: Death in Paris, Tony said he was working as one of the senior traffic collision investigators for the Metropolitan Police at the time.

He expressed his shock to go from being a 'traffic cop' to working on one of the biggest investigations in the world.

When asked about his thoughts on the various conspiracy theories, Tony explained that it was nearly impossible to set up a car crash.

Photos of the wreckage shocked the public (AFP/Getty Images)

But there are those who believe that their deaths were the result of a set-up assassination, including Dodi's father, Mr Al-Fayed.

Another theory that was floating around afterwards was that the car had been tampered with but Tony found no evidence of this when investigating and inspecting the vehicle.

While the fatal incident in Paris shocked the world, Tony explained that the circumstances of it aren't that uncommon and in fact, the tragedy was the result of a driver who had too much to drink driving too fast in challenging circumstances.

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