Diana Crash Witnesses Saw Fiat, Driver
Associated Press
December 30, 1997
In one of the more tantalizing leads in the Princess Diana investigation, a new police report quotes witnesses seeing a Fiat Uno "zigzagging" out of the tunnel where she died and describing the car's driver, a judicial source said Wednesday.
[COMMENT. The phrase “tantalizing leads” is no doubt designed to entice the reader, raising expectations. “Zigzagging” out of the tunnel? No previous witnesses have reported seeing a car zigzagging out the tunnel. Why them?]
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, is privy to all documents in the case, including the 400-page report police submitted this week to investigating judge Herve Stephan.
[COMMENT. Of course the source is anonymous. We wouldn’t expect anything less. Also note how this anonymous source is privy to all documents in the case, thus establishing his/her credibility and being in a position to know exactly what is going on.]
The confidential report, coming a full four months after the crash, appears not to contain any earth-shattering revelations. Yet the witness accounts revealed Wednesday - but known to police since Sept. 18 - are the most detailed so far concerning the mysterious second car long believed to have played a role in the crash.
[COMMENT: If the eyewitness accounts to the police were known since Sept. 18, how come they are being leaked to the press now? What has happened in the interim to trigger the release of this particular story? Could it be that the world public senses rightly that it's not being told the truth, forcing the French to ever more extreme efforts at damage control?]
Investigators have been trying to find a small white car, probably a Fiat Uno, that Diana's Mercedes is believed to have sideswiped just before losing control and crashing into a pillar in the Pont de l'Alma traffic tunnel.
The Aug. 31 accident killed Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul. Key factors in the crash are still believed to be alcohol - Paul was legally drunk - and excessive speed.
[COMMENT: Now we're getting to the real purpose of this article! In the above two paragraphs we are bombarded with the main French themes of the moment. First we are reminded of the white Uno (which nobody saw except for our new mystery witnesses). Recall attorney Gary Hunter's statement:
(September 22, 1997): Agence-France-Presse reported British lawyer GARY HUNTER, in a hotel room directly above the Alma tunnel, witnessed a small black car [emphasis added] fleeing at 60-70 mph from the tunnel, after his hearing the crash and looking out of his third floor hotel window. Significantly, he added that his impression was that the car was running from the scene and that it "looked quite sinister" to him. According to news accounts, he also said, "the car was being shadowed by a second vehicle, a white Mercedes."
``I heard the screeching of tires. I saw a small dark car turning the corner at the top of the road. I would say it was racing at 60-70 mph,'' Hunter, 41, was quoted as saying. ``My own feeling is that these were people in a hurry not to be there. I am confident that the car was getting off the scene... it looked quite sinister."
And also recall secretary Brenda Wells statement:
"After a party with my friends, I was returning to my home. A motorbike with two men forced me off the road. It was following a big car. Afterwards in the tunnel there were very strong lights like flashes. After that, a black car arrived. The big car had come off the road. I stopped and five or six motorbikes arrived and started taking photographs. They were crying 'It's Diana.'"
No where do we hear about a "white Uno." We have a "small dark car," a "white Mercedes," and a "black car," (the small dark car seen by Gary Hunter?). The white Uno was concocted by the French police because more than likely both the small dark car and white Mercedes seen by Gary Hunter were part of the "intervention team" responsible for forcing the Mercedes 280 into the thirteenth pillar.
In the second paragraph we are told once again that Paul was drunk (not according to the Ritz tapes), and was speeding excessively (not according to Professor Murray Mackay, head of the Birmingham Accident Research Centre, who's investigation indicates the Mercedes could only have been travel ling 60 mph, and according to just plain common sense).]
The two witnesses, a couple identified in the report only as "Francois," a financial director, and "Valerie," told police that after dining at a restaurant near the Pont de l'Alma, they got in their car and were driving on a road parallel to the traffic tunnel.
[COMMENT: Note how we are only given first names, "Francois" and "Valerie," as opposed to the full names and occupations of attorney Gary Hunter and secretary Brenda Wells.]
Just beyond the tunnel exit, they were passed by a white Fiat Uno, the report said, according to the source. The man said he recognized the car model because his mother-in-law had the same one.
The car's exhaust pipe was making a loud noise as if it had been damaged, and the driver was driving abnormally - "zigzagging" - and then cut off the couple's car, the witnesses were quoted as saying.
[COMMENT: How could the "white Fiat Uno" cut off their car? If the Uno was just exiting the tunnel, and Francois and Valerie were on a road running parallel (to the right), then by this statement we are lead to believe that at some point the Uno attempted to exit the roadway, and Francois and Valerie attempted to get onto the roadway. But wouldn't in such a scenario the car exiting have the right of way? Francois' statement makes no sense.]
The Fiat's driver was "a European type," about 40 years old, with brown hair, the witnesses said. In the back of his car was a large dog.
[COMMENT: It's desperation time. Remember Gary Hunter saw a small dark car exiting the tunnel at 60-70 mph. Even if he mistakenly saw a dark car when in fact it was white, that's a significant speed. How could Francois and Valerie possibly make all that out (European type, 40, brown hair) at 12:25 am, dark, very little lighting, with a car travel ling at a high rate of speed? Not possible. And to top it off, Fido was in the back seat! Did Fido see anything of value? Perhaps he can bark the answers!]
The witnesses came to see police on Sept. 18, the report said. Although a number of witness accounts have leaked out since the beginning of the investigation, these accounts were kept secret until first reported Wednesday by the French newspaper Le Parisien.
[COMMENT: What took the witnesses so long to go to the police? And why was this report leaked now to Le Parisien? To the last question, at least, we have an answer. Several weeks before this article appeared the AP released a sketch made by the Paris police only hours after the crash. It showed involvement of a second car, even though the police didn't admit involvement of a second car until three weeks later (More disinformation, actually it wasn't until October 9 that the French admitted involvement of the second car. See ABC News, Paris, October 9: "Investigators probing the Paris crash in which Princess Diana died have concluded a second car was probably involved in the accident, a police official said today"). There is no way conceivable at this point the French can deny that a second was involved, or that they knew about it from the start. "Francois" and "Valerie" are their efforts at damage control. We learn from them that it was indeed a white Uno, and perhaps even more important, that Fido was riding in the back seat (after all, what kind of intervention team rides around with a dog in the back seat?)]
The newspaper previously reported that police thought they were close to identifying the driver of the car when they questioned a man fitting the witness accounts. The driver had a large dog and a Fiat Uno he recently repaired and repainted red. But the man couldn't be linked to the crash, and was released.
So far, authorities have been unable to locate the suspect Fiat Uno, despite having checked out thousands of the cars registered in the Paris area.
[COMMENT: Once more we hear about a Fiat Uno owner with a dog. A clever piece of psychology. It's designed to subtly connect in the mind of the reader Uno owner-dog-average-Joe who just happened to get bumped by the Mercedes 280 while a drunken Henri Paul was speeding out of control. It won't work. We're not buying and neither should you.]
There have been various reports alluding to small white cars that may have been involved in the crash. A judicial source told The Associated Press earlier this month that a witness in late November described seeing a small white car stopped in front of the Mercedes, just after the crash.
He said he saw a man standing outside the car, speaking on a cellular telephone, and soon after he saw two men who had been in the vehicle running quickly out of the tunnel.
[COMMENT: More small white cars, presumably Uno types. Who was this witness cited by the judicial source? We need names! And in the second paragraph, the lie-masters trip themselves up. If two men were seen running from the scene of the fatal accident, that in and of itself, even if no other evidence of foul play existed, would be enough to raise all kinds of suspicions!]
Physical evidence found in the tunnel has buttressed witness accounts of a second car: shards of the Mercedes' headlight mixed with shards of a Fiat Uno's tail light, and traces of white paint on the right side of the wrecked Mercedes.
[COMMENT: Perhaps the most important paragraph of all. Think about it: a 4000 lb. Mercedes 280 travel ling at excessive speed - 80-120 mph - crashes into a featherweight Uno. The Merc's right front end slams into the Uno's left rear end, then presumably, the Merc slides along the driver's side panels of the Uno, then takes off, almost becoming airborne, and crashes into the 13th pillar, while the featherweight Uno survives virtually unscathed, and our middle aged "European," with Fido safely ensconced in the back seat, goes merrily on his way!
It goes without saying that, unless the laws of physics have suddenly been repealed, the scenario as outlined above, which no doubt is how the French would like to conclude their investigation, defies reason and common sense.
The above article is a prime example of why we must examine literally
every word released by the French authorities and press regarding Diana's
death. It's classic disinformation, in that it mixes in some truth (a second
car, probably a small compact, Uno type vehicle), with a whole pack of
lies (white Uno, Paul drunk, excessive speed, middle aged European, ever
faithful Fido). But like any disinformation, there is only one place for
it: the scrapheap.
