Princess Diana could have survived fatal Paris crash if she made one simple choice, investigator says

One small decision before Princess Diana’s 1997 crash could have saved her life and changed history.

On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed alongside her companion, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, when their Mercedes crashed at high speed in a Paris tunnel while paparazzi pursued them. The mother of two was just 36.

The tragedy is getting a fresh examination in FOX’s new special, "Celebrity Crime Scene: Princess Diana," which airs Aug. 20. Using modern recreation technology to reconstruct the events surrounding the crash, host and investigative crime journalist Jakson Buhaj joins British forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes and former U.S. Secret Service agent Rich Staropoli to revisit the evidence, scrutinize the theories and explore what really happened that night in Paris.

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Buhaj told Fox News Digital that knowing one simple thing might have saved the princess makes her death all the more haunting.

"It's very odd that no one was wearing a seat belt," he said. "You would think that [Dodi Fayed's bodyguard] Trevor Rees-Jones, who was sitting in the front seat directly ahead of Diana ... would caution her that she should definitely put a seat belt on, considering the car is driving way over the speed limit. ... Yet no one thinks to do that."

Rees-Jones accompanied Diana and Fayed on their final trip, but he worked as a bodyguard for Fayed's family, not as Diana's official protection officer.

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"What I think is the most tragic thing about this is that had everyone been wearing their seat belt, unfortunately, Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed probably would’ve passed away, but Diana most likely still would’ve been with us," Buhaj said.

"And I think that’s something that really stuck with me after we wrapped filming, that there is a whole other timeline out there where a seat belt could have saved Princess Diana."

For years, one detail about the crash was widely repeated: Rees-Jones survived because he was the only person in the Mercedes wearing a seat belt. Investigators later determined that wasn't true. The official British inquiry concluded that no one in the car was wearing a seat belt when it crashed.

After the official British police inquiry concluded in 2006, Lord Stevens said Diana, Fayed and Paul might not have died had they been wearing seat belts, The Guardian reported.

Paul was scheduled to be off duty that night. His blood alcohol level was later found to be more than three times the French legal limit, People magazine reported. Surveillance video did not show obvious signs that Paul was intoxicated, and several witnesses said they noticed nothing unusual about his behavior.

People magazine reported that Paul taunted photographers by announcing, "You won’t catch up with us." As he picked up speed, he couldn't shake the paparazzi chasing the Mercedes, including several photographers traveling on motorcycles and scooters.

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"There are many, many things that could have prevented the death of Princess Diana," Buhaj said. "I think getting into that car with Henri Paul was a death sentence for Princess Diana. ... And had she not done that, she could still be with us today."

The Mercedes slammed into the 13th concrete pillar of Paris’ Pont de l’Alma underpass shortly after midnight. The car then rebounded and struck the tunnel wall before coming to a stop. In the front seat, airbags were sprayed with blood, and Paul’s body pressed on the horn, People reported.

Paul and Fayed died at the scene, while Rees-Jones suffered critical injuries. Diana was found on the floor of the mangled car, severely injured. Photographers descended on the crash scene and began taking pictures.

Buhaj also found it alarming that about an hour and 40 minutes passed between the crash and Diana's arrival at the hospital. It's noted that French emergency teams followed an approach to trauma care that emphasized treating and stabilizing critically injured patients at the scene before transporting them. Diana also had to be freed from the wreckage and went into cardiac arrest before she was placed in the ambulance.

Even after the ambulance left, the driver was instructed to proceed slowly because Diana's condition was so unstable. At one point, the ambulance stopped when her blood pressure dropped.

Diana, whose heart had been restarted once, was treated by a team of about 20 doctors and nurses, People reported. She again went into cardiac arrest. In surgery, physicians discovered a ruptured pulmonary vein and massive internal bleeding. Doctors tried to repair the torn vein and stop the bleeding, but they were unable to restart Diana’s heart. She was pronounced dead at 4 a.m.

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In the years before her death, Diana had expressed concerns about her safety. She believed she was being watched and that her phones could be tapped. She also wrote privately about fears that she could be harmed in a car crash.

"People in her close circle described her as quite paranoid," Buhaj said. "... She is the most famous person on the planet. ... So not only are billions of people across the world glued to the screen whenever she appears on it, but she’s also constantly having to look over her shoulder out of fear."

"I think what I learned about her paranoia coming away from the special was that she had an extremely strained relationship, not just with her husband, but with the entire royal family. And I think that played a huge role in that paranoia."

According to the Operation Paget investigation, several people close to Diana said she did not appear anxious about her safety in the weeks before the crash.

Still, some of Diana’s earlier fears were revisited after her death. In one account, she had warned years earlier that someone might try to harm her in a staged car crash. In a handwritten note, Diana alleged that then-Prince Charles was planning an accident involving her car. 

The note was written during a turbulent period in Diana’s life, amid her separation and divorce from Charles. The Guardian reported that there were also false rumors circulating at the time that the prince and their children's nanny were having an affair.

Charles later told Operation Paget investigators he had not known about the note and did not understand why Diana had expressed those fears, the outlet reported. British investigators ultimately found no evidence that Diana's death was part of a deliberate plot.

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Decades after her death, Buhaj said one thing is clear: Diana continues to be "the people’s princess."

"... Princess Diana had this way of effortlessly merging with the people, walking through that minefield in Angola, going and reaching out and touching children suffering from AIDS, which is something that the royal family would never even dream of doing," he insisted. "But it put her in a different light. It immortalized her in a way where she was this polarizing figure who was one of the people. And I don’t think that will ever change."