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.
Quote: “Also, was the car one of those that have automatic lights?”
If it was a late 70’s model Fiat, then the design itself would actually kill any human being that comes into contact with it given, its absolute repulsive ugliness.
Dont’ tell me — these beings were the inspiration for the Disney animated film “Ratatouille”?!?
Puhleeeze!!!
Or just headlights. i drive enough streets with speed-bumps, and hilly roads, to know that if you change the vertical angle from one vehicle to another, an ordinary headlight -- let alone one of those dangerously bright bluish halogens -- can look a lot like a blinding flash.
Right.
(Here we go ...)
Thats’ not what I said - I simply made the point.
I also made clear he has done a hell of a lot for charity in our country and has adopted it as his home. I welcome him.
Yeah, any idiot could take an established company and maintain its profitability. That's why Sears is still the world's largest retailer, A&P is the largest grocery chain in the US, and GM and Ford dominate the worldwide automotive industry.
That’s all you have to know about someone.....they think Oswald Shot JFK....
Wrong! The drunk driver was killed. It was the (sober) bodyguard, riding in the front seat with the driver, who used his seat belt and lived.
Wrong! The drunk driver was killed. It was the (sober) bodyguard, riding in the front seat with the driver, who used his seat belt and lived.
You’re right! It was the work of robots! They’re taking over the world.
BTW, you probably would enjoy this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1911234/posts
Two words. Who cares?
The DEROS & TEROS crap is from ca 1940-1960, and is loosely based on the 'hollow earth full of aliens/Nazis/Atlanteans/UFO bases/???" fostered by Ray Palmer & his Amazing, Fantastic, Fate, and other pulp magazines.
OTOH, the DEROS may really exist, because the late, great Long John Neville had a guest on his late-night talk show (which long pre-dated Art Bell/Coast-to-Coast, which is similar) who "REALLY" had accidentally accessed their tunnels by going to the lowest sub-basement of a Chicago skyscraper, then pressing the elevator's button twice! "He barely escaped to tell the tale!" LOL
I've about given up on "new" sci-fi, because I either read or watched nearly all of it 30-50 years ago. The names and the tech changes, but the stories (and cliches!) are the same; rarely is there a new twist.
My thought it was the driver, leaving his pants behind, um, in the seat, as he went through the windshield, er, windscreen.
I love the smell of a conspiracy nut in the morning. Got your tinsel foil hat on, do you?
“But then again I am and have been forever a die hard Diana fan. Not that she was perfect, but darnit she was close!”
Oh yeah, she was perfect all right. Perfectly nutz. How about when she threw herself down a flight of stairs while pregnant before a horrified Prince Charles, because she was mad at him? And, let’s see, there was the bulimia, and the fact that she was what is known in psychiatric terms as a “delicate cutter”, in other words, she would take a sharp object, or a knife, and make cut marks up and down her arms to make herself feel better. And her attempts to undermine the whole royal house with her books and comments on TV. Oh, and then there was her own promiscuous behavior, her stalking of one of her boyfriends to the point he had to contact the authorities to get her to stop, and her penchant for wanting relationships with Muzzies, probably just to wipe it in Charles’ face. But then again Diana was almost perfect. What a joke.
She has been “diagnosed” as a borderline personality in biographies of her since her death. I know this is always an iffy proposition when practiced by a biographer, but she sure seems to fit the profile, including the intense, brief-duration mood swings, the expectation of huge amounts of concentrated attention from her small circle of friends and lovers (many friends had to drop out because they could not sustain this, and others were dropped by Diana often for no reason that they could ever figure out), the making of crises out of trifling events, the bulimia and the half-hearted attempts to do herself harm especially the self cutting. She seems to have displayed a classic case of the condition.
It was all leading up to this: Diana and Dodi were probably to be married.That meant that the heir to the British throne and also to be the head of the Church of England would be living outside the UK and have a Muslim step father.NO WAY was a Muslim ever going to be a part of the royal family so Dodi had to be eliminated.The primary target wasn’t Diana but she was expendable if it came to that.
I’ve said it before. Di and Dodi should have known better then to hire a driver named Toonces. They were just asking for it.
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