Lawyer Who Saw Princess Diana's Crash Breaks Silence After 20 Years
A witness to Princess Diana's fatal accident says her chances of survival have been severely reduced by the delay in emergency services; and he believes “other forces” were behind the tragic accident.
Retired lawyer Stanlee Culbreath was one of the first to witness the tragic accident, but he remained silent out of respect for young princes William and Harry.
But now, nearly 20 years after Diana's death, the 69-year-old is offering new details about the crash, critically questioning whether she could have lived if the French emergency services had acted faster.
Mr Culbreath said: “I always thought it was suspicious, that other forces were involved, but now, 20 years later, I wonder more than ever if it was a real accident. I just think it's dubious. If it's the princess, why did it take about 20 minutes to get there and when she was finally taken from the car, why didn't they go to the nearest hospital? "
Mr Culbreath explained how once there (he was unaware that Diana was the victim at the time) he commented to a friend: "Damn, a junkie on Main Street would be rescued faster than that."
He added: “There are so many questions that I ask myself over and over again about how the accident was handled and whether she could have been saved. I asked the police to help, but they were very indifferent about everything. "
Mr. Culbreath, of Columbus, Ohio, was in Paris on August 31, 1997 on a European tour with his friends Clarence Williams and Michael Walker.
They arrived in the city hours before the accident and took a sightseeing tour of the Eiffel Tower.
Returning to the hotel by taxi at around 12:20 pm, they entered the Alma Bridge tunnel and were confronted with the burning wreckage of the princess's car.
“Our taxi driver pulled up a few yards from his limousine,” Culbreath recalled. He explained that France had a Good Samaritan law and it was our duty to stop and help. “We got out a few meters from their Mercedes. The car was against the wall and the front passenger door was already open. ”
At that time Mr. Culbreath was unaware that the passengers in the car were Princess Diana, 36, her lover Dodi Fayed, 42, driver Henri Paul, 41, and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, 49 years old, the only survivor and the only passenger who wore a seat belt.
He recalled: “We didn’t hear the blast from the blast, although the accident happened just as we entered the tunnel. Their car was smoking, the exhaust muffler was on the floor. I went to check and Trevor Rees-Jones had his legs out of the car and they had a towel or something in his nose because he was bleeding badly. ”
“There were only four or five of us, so I went to the car and looked to see if we could help.”
Unbeknownst to Mr. Culbreath and his friends, Diana was injured in the back and Dodi was already dead. “I didn't know who was in the back until later, but at one point I was… inches from the princess trying to look out her window,” he explained.
“I remember saying to the guys back then, 'Is there an ambulance or something?' Because there was no sign of help coming. After 15 or 20 minutes there was still no doctor on the scene and I said to my friends, ‘Damn, some junkie on Main Street would be rescued faster than that.’ ”
There was only one policeman there. He kept saying, "Get away, get away."
“Since the window in the back was dark, I couldn't see who was in the back. I begged the officer to open the door… It looked like it could be opened. He was doing nothing. He was doing nothing. It was as if they had decided that nothing could be done. It's fair my opinion, but it took a long time to get it out. "
“It lasted up to 30 minutes before help arrived. We had been there for at least 15 minutes. Why wasn't the ambulance faster? I never heard of an ambulance the whole time I was there. I never heard a siren. I remember there seemed to be an insurmountable time for an emergency vehicle to respond. I told the guys, I would hate to be in an accident in Paris when no one shows up. '
His chances of survival were greatly reduced by the time it took for help to arrive.
The more people there are, the lower their chances of survival.
“When we left, there was still no ambulance. The speed of intervention was very insufficient. Questions must be asked. ”
During the 18-month French crash investigation, it was determined that the crash was caused by driver Henri Paul, who was drunk while driving the Mercedes-Benz S280, traveling around 100 kilometers per hour. Paul, 41, was the general security administrator at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. During the 2007 investigation, it emerged that it took an hour and six minutes from the time Diana was taken from the destroyed car to arriving at the hospital.
The investigation hinted that the princess could have lived if the French doctors had not wasted precious minutes.
Mr Culbreath said he was also skeptical of the delay in removing the princess from the car and claimed the door on his side could have been opened. He said, “I thought the car was in a condition where you could open the door. I didn't think there was enough damage to the car that you couldn't open the back door. So why can't you go through this door? ”
“When the car finally came out of the tunnel on a truck, it was flattened like a pancake, but when I saw it one side wasn't. This was the side the princess was on. I later learned that the "survival jaws" had been used. Why didn't they just open the door? She wasn't dead, she was talking. "
Mr Culbreath, who was not called during the investigation but provided a statement, said he had not given an interview so far to protect Diana's children.
He explained: “My children were the same age as Prince William and Prince Harry at the time. I never spoke to anyone because I wanted to protect them all. "
Reflecting on the Princess of Wales, Mr Culbreath added: “I think Diana was a great person. She was always there for people and dedicated to the common goal. She was always there for people in need, for the common man, but when her time came, the reciprocity was sorely missed. "
