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Posted on 10/15/2007 11:14:27 AM PDT by UKrepublican
Diana inquest: Witness saw 'major white flash' just before crash
A motorist who witnessed the crash which killed Diana, Princess of Wales recalled today that he saw a "major white flash" in the Alma underpass.
Francois Levistre was driving in front of the Mercedes when the fatal collision happened in the Paris tunnel more than 10 years ago in August 1997.
Speaking by video link from the French capital for the inquest into the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed, Mr Levistre described how the Princess's car was overtaken by a motorbike inside the underpass.
He told the jury he saw a very bright flash - like the light from a police radar - and it had been directed at the Mercedes.
Mr Levistre said, speaking through a translator: "I realised there was this major white flash of the motorbike in front of the Mercedes, in front of the car.
"I was nearly at the exit of the tunnel and I realised that because I heard the noise of the motorbike within the tunnel."
"I just wondered what happened because the light was like you were caught by the police in a radar," he added. Ian Burnett QC, counsel for the inquest, asked: "This flash was very bright?"
Mr Levistre replied: "Very. The light even came into my car."
He added: "The light was not directed towards me. It was directed towards the car which was behind."
The witness, who saw the events in his rear view mirror, described how the Mercedes veered from side to side before it turned around.
"When I saw the light, I looked into the mirror... I saw the car going from left to right to left again to get within the pillar.
"The car had no light any longer. Everything was switched off."
Mr Levistre, who stopped near the exit from the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, saw the motorcycle passenger get off, approach the car, look inside, and make a hand gesture to the bike's driver before they drove away.
He told the jury, sitting at the High Court in London, that the bike's occupants looked at him before passing his vehicle and leaving the underpass.
Mr Levistre also said he saw a small white car in the tunnel, but maintained that there was no contact between this and the Mercedes.
He could not confirm that it was a Fiat Uno.
Mr Levistre was with his wife, their daughter Marie-Agnes and her boyfriend - now husband - David Le Ny, on a night out in Paris at the time.
They were walking back to their car from the Eiffel Tower nearby.
Mrs Catheline said: "When they were already in the tunnel, under the bridge we heard noises like two cars bumping each other."
Mr Le Ny said he remembered seeing a large dark car speeding towards them into the tunnel.
"It was going very fast, I remember the noise coming from the engine... I certainly made a comment, stating that they were crazy or something like that."
Mr and Mrs Catheline also told how they had seen a man running towards them into the tunnel almost immediately after the crash.
The inquest also heard how the Princess of Wales's Mercedes may have "bumped" another large, dark car as it entered the tunnel.
Jean-Claude Catheline and his wife Annick told the inquest that they saw two dark cars travelling quickly side-by-side into the Pont de l'Alma Tunnel in Paris in the early hours of August 31 1997.
Speaking by video link from the French capital they revealed how they heard the sound of a collision as they walked on a grassy embankment near the entrance to the underpass.
Moments later, Mr Catheline heard the sound of tyres screeching as the Mercedes carrying Diana and Dodi crashed. He told the inquest sitting at the High Court in London: "As soon as the car disappeared from our view we heard what sounded like the bodywork bumping, I think that this noise was before the car entered the tunnel."
In an excerpt from his original police statement, read to the court by Richard Horwell QC, he said: "Almost immediately I heard a second noise, very, very loud, quite different from the first, it was a dull noise and followed by a second, identical noise."
Mr Catheline added, as he addressed the court: "I heard the tyres screeching on the road." The couple were with their daughter Marie-Agnes and her boyfriend - now husband - David Le Ny, on a night out in Paris at the time.
They were walking back to their car from the Eiffel Tower nearby.
Mrs Catheline said: "When they were already in the tunnel, under the bridge we heard noises like two cars bumping each other."
Mr Le Ny said he remembered seeing a large dark car speeding towards them into the tunnel.
"It was going very fast, I remember the noise coming from the engine... I certainly made a comment, stating that they were crazy or something like that."
Mr and Mrs Catheline also told how they had seen a man running towards them into the tunnel almost immediately after the crash.
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“a very bright flash - like the light from a police radar” - whatever does this mean?
Flash photography. Probably blinded the driver for an instant.
Major white flash? That and the driver was on drugs travelling at a high rate of speed - but if it hadn’t been for that major white flash - the good princess would be with us today. I wonder why MADD hasn’t made her their poster-girl?
“He told the jury he saw a very bright flash - like the light from a police radar”
Radar radiation is in the visible spectrum now?
Where is Major White Flash now?....India?
Trevor Rees: "Blimey, Lady Diana, I really don't think mooning them is going to make them go away...."
Dodi Fayed: "Oh, now, shush, Mr. Reese. Why should not everybody worship the moon as I do? Here, now, my dear -- just lean over and we can show the driver how to worship the moooooooOOOOOONNNooops! Oh crap!"
Clap-trap Charlie’s hired guns got rid of an obstacle paving the way for his legitimizing his relationship with the horse’s a**.
Oh for the love of God, this was just an unfortunate, fatal accident. Could this woman ever Rest In Peace?
The Fiat in question has nothing to do with it because it was just fate. The Fiat was in the tunnel before Henri Paul entered it. The flash possibly blinded Paul because it was most likely a paparazzi’s camera and that completely took him by surprise.
I have no doubt that this was just an unfortunate accident and not the work of British intelligence, or space aliens or “shadow people”...
a flash bulb. if the merc banged another “big, black car” there would be paint transfers.
tin foil hat time?
The media killed Diana but the Diana worshipers dont hold them accountable by tuning them out.
I never thought I could be sicker of somebody dead than when they were alive. ENOUGH ABOUT THIS PERSON.
No, but photographic flash units are.
Thye use photos to send you a speeding ticket; I got "flashed" once while on the Autobahn, driving a bit over the limit.
It's not all that incredibly bright.
Ya read something like this and you just wanna go cry in your whiskey.
I believe she was killed. Don’t know why, don’t know by whom, but it seems it’s too coincedental “The driver was drunk/drugged”. At the very least someone is guilty of involuntary manslaughter for driving them into a fatal car crash.
But then again I am and have been forever a die hard Diana fan. Not that she was perfect, but darnit she was close!
The Fiat in question has nothing to do with it because it was just fate. The Fiat was in the tunnel before Henri Paul entered it. The flash possibly blinded Paul because it was most likely a paparazzi’s camera and that completely took him by surprise.
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That’s what I think. The flash from the bulb momentarily blinded him going at a high rate of speed with columns in a bridge.
Also, was the car one of those that have automatic lights? I know my van has lights that I don’t have to turn on for them to work, they just come on in the dark. Now, if so, the really bright light might have made them go off for a few seconds (all it takes to lose control of a vehicle moving at a high rate of speed) until they could adapt to the low light and come back on.
Just a thought.
What makes more sense, that Christians kill people for marrying Muslims or that Muslims kill people for marrying Christians?
I hope the British public appreciate the amount of money they are paying to accommodate this WOG lunacy.
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