More than 28 years later, people still talk about and reflect about the terrible car disaster that killed Princess Diana. Diana was in Paris with her friend Dodi Fayed, their driver Henri Paul, and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones at 3:00 a.m. on August 31, 1997. She was only 36 years old at the time. The group was leaving the Ritz Hotel and trying to get away from the paparazzi who were chasing them through the streets of Paris.
The chase came to an end when the car hit the Pont de l’Alma tunnel. Henri Paul was driving too quickly and lost control of the car. He was also sure that he had drunk too much to drive legally in France. The car slammed into a concrete structure in the tunnel. Both Paul and Fayed died right away. The accident devastated Diana and Rees-Jones extremely profoundly. Even though emergency workers did everything they could, Diana died from her injuries at the hospital about 4 a.m. that morning. People all throughout the world were horrified by the news, and millions are still hurting.
People have been interested in the facts for a long time, even though government investigations revealed that the event was a tragic accident caused by careless drunk driving and pushy photographers. There are still questions, and many people who knew Diana well have talked about their memories and regrets throughout the years.
One of these voices is Steve Davies, who used to drive Princess Diana. In an interview, he just said something that was hard to grasp. Davies thought about what he had done in Diana’s life and what may have been. “I would have put my life on the line for Diana.” He said to The Sun, “My job was my life.” He added that if he had been driving in Paris that night, he thinks he could have protected her. He felt proud and sad when he talked. He kept thinking about what may happen if he did things differently.
Davies also told a personal story: it took him years to figure out why he lost his job driving Diana around. He also said that he learned about the phony claims against him while watching the Netflix show The Crown. According to reports, journalist Martin Bashir spread false suspicions that Davies was sending the press information about Diana. This harmed Davies’s reputation and got him fired. Davies remarked, “I went from having the best job ever to having to start over from scratch.” This occurrence indicates that the scandal affected not only the royal family but also everyone around them.
Ken Wharfe was Diana’s bodyguard from 1987 to 1993. He has talked about how he has felt over the past few years. He remembered how hard it was for Diana to make decisions after she broke up with Prince Charles, like firing her official security team from Scotland Yard. Wharfe said he encouraged her to get professional protection because he knew she wanted to be free, but he also knew how dangerous it could be to be so free in front of the public. There wasn’t any official security, so Diana had to develop her own plans. This choice might have made her more likely to get hurt than she wanted to.
Wharfe has said several times how hard it was for Diana to keep her public and private lives separate, how much she wanted things to be normal, and how hard it was to deal with all the attention she got from people all over the world. She didn’t drop security because she was being careless; she did it because royal laws had hindered her from getting portions of her life back.
The death of Princess Diana is one of the worst and most important things that has happened in modern history. She was more than simply a princess; her kindness, her work for others, and her close ties to the people made her a symbol of compassion and vulnerability in a world when both are rare to find in the spotlight.
People who used to work with her now remember her not only by what they say, but also by how they feel bad and that they have to do something. The motorist who still thinks he could have made a difference and the security guard who warned of the dangers both feel awful and understand each other.
People may never fully comprehend what happened that night, but one thing is for sure: Princess Diana’s legacy will live on. individuals are talking about it in the press and in documentaries, but also in the hearts of the individuals she wounded and the others who were with her but are too embarrassed to say anything.