Word: pauling
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Reported by Paul Quinn-Judge/Moscow and Douglas Waller/Washington
...Alma tunnel has become a place of morbid pilgrimage: a way station in the re-enactment of Diana's life and death. But a thousand imponderables lie behind the tragic tale of that car accident on Aug. 31, 1997, that also killed her lover Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul. French authorities still have no clear answers to many vexing questions. They say they have definitively ruled out the possibility of a conspiracy, and now consider the crash an accident owing mainly to drunk driving, excessive speed and a dangerous stretch of road. Yet many of the key mysteries...
...Rees-Jones' facial injuries suggests that the air bags may have inflated with explosive force before the Mercedes struck the 13th pillar. That raises the possibility that the initial brush with another car, the mysterious Fiat Uno, may have triggered the deployment of the air bags, stunning and blinding Paul at a critical moment. At the request of Rees-Jones' French attorney, investigating Judge Herve Stephan ordered a technical report on the air bags last December. The resulting document is inconclusive but does not rule out this hypothesis. Sources close to Rees-Jones say his lawyers may be preparing...
According to chauffeur Lafaye's deposition, Musa also knew that the car was unstable and tended to "skate out at the rear end." Lafaye told the judge that the Mercedes "did not hold the road. You had to know this car to drive it safely, and Henri Paul had never driven it." This claim is backed up by Jean Pietri, a veteran French automotive engineer who has independently analyzed the physical phenomena surrounding the accident. By comparing the mathematical curve of the Mercedes' trajectory with the actual tire marks left on the road surface, Pietri concludes that the car "tended...
There was reason to believe that the Mercedes had mechanical problems before Paul ever took the wheel. The car had been stolen in April 1997, stripped for parts and repaired at a cost of more than $20,000. Though the Mercedes passed a police inspection on July 7, 1997, Lafaye's testimony indicates that there were still some doubts about its roadworthiness. Thus the question arises: Why was that particular car chosen to take Dodi Fayed and the Princess of Wales on a high-speed drive...