Every 16 Minutes

Driver dead. Boyfriend dead. Her eyes opened to reveal a wrecked car and the bodies of the other passengers lying limp on the seat. “My God, what’s happened?” she asked, dazed, then falling unconscious again. The impact completely crushed the black Mercedes, leaving her with a broken arm, massive chest injuries, a cut in her thigh, and a concussion. When responders arrived, they used electric chainsaws to remove her from the flattened car. “It hurts…It hurts,” she repeated to the paramedics. When she arrived at the hospital, doctors attempted to get her heart beating correctly with a two- hour operation, but she did not regain consciousness. On August 31, 4 o’clock in the morning, the heart monitor finally fell to a steady line. This is the story of how beloved Princess Diana fell victim to a fatal car accident, one of the 3,700 vehicle deaths that occur every day worldwide. It’s not uncommon. A car crash resulting in death happens every 16 minutes.

There were so many things that had gone wrong that night. At midnight, paparazzi had harassed the couple out of the restaurant and into a car chase. The distracting cameras flashed at the driver who had three times the legal alcohol blood level. With everything going on, he continued to speed at twice the speed limit and eventually crashed into the 13th pillar of Pont d’Alma Tunnel. Two passengers died instantly. Diana died hours later. There was one survivor.

Trevor-Rees-Jones, Diana’s bodyguard, was also in the car when it crashed. Although it was against protocol for a bodyguard to wear a seatbelt, Rees-Jones put his on mere seconds before the accident. He suffered many severe injuries, including a 10-day coma, brain and chest trauma, and a shattered face. Surgeons literally had to rebuild his face using 150 pieces of titanium and old pictures as a guide. He was the sole survivor and was even participating in hard sport within a year. That seatbelt saved his life.

After Diana’s death, Dr. Richard Shepherd, a forensic pathologist, discovered that a small badly-placed tear in her lung ultimately caused her death. He believed that by wearing a seatbelt, Princess Diana would have survived. “Had she been restrained, she would probably have appeared in public two days later with a black eye, perhaps a bit breathless from the fractured ribs and with a broken arm in a sling,” Shepherd wrote in 2019. Because the car crashed into a pillar at such high speed, Diana was probably flung into the back of the front seat, smashing her chest and resulting in her heart being pushed back in her body.

Alcohol was the main factor in the crash, but unfortunately, the passengers were unaware that the driver was drunk. And it didn’t help that they were above the speed limit, zooming at over 100 km/hour. Speeding and drunk driving are already prohibited in the US and France, where the accident took place. They just didn’t follow the rules. But there was a third, significant reason for this accident — all but one passenger was not wearing a seatbelt. Shockingly, for those over the age of 16, it is legal to sit in a car without a seatbelt. But Trevor’s seatbelt saved his life, and

perhaps could have spared the others if they had been wearing one too.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 45% of vehicle

accident-related deaths could be prevented if people wore seatbelts. So why doesn’t everyone wear them? Some people find it too restraining or uncomfortable. The reality is that no reason is

worth that risk. Not wearing seatbelts doesn’t just put you at risk; it raises the chance of injuring someone in the front seat by two times. Don’t just wear a seatbelt to save your life. Wear it for everyone else.

I’m lucky to have never experienced a vehicle crash, but I don’t want others to learn the hard way. For some teenage drivers, wearing a seatbelt seems unnecessary and uncool. I’ve seen countless cars in the high school parking lot carrying masses of kids not even sitting on the seats. It might seem fun taking take videos with someone halfway out the window until the driver loses control. It only takes one accident to make a decision that changes lives. That’s why it is crucial to educate these young new drivers; they are our future. Accidents still happen, but by taking a couple of extra seconds to fasten a seat belt, we can prevent thousands of deaths every day.

Citations:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/princess-diana-death

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/bodyguard-trevor-rees-details-missing-four-minutes-before-princess-diana-crash-in-paris/MJCVWTH4RZSNWDRIVKNXBEDY2M/

https://www.history.com/Bodyguard Trevor Rees details missing four minutes before Princess Diana crash in Paristhis-day-in-history/princess-diana-dies-in-car-crash-paris

https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a29874597/princess-diana-death/