Diana's Limousine Was a Death Trap Which Had Been Crashed and Repaired TWICE Before - Including Being Rolled 10 Times by a Prisoner Out on Remand'
- Karim Kazi, a former chauffeur at the Paris limo company, warned bosses about the Mercedes that Diana and Dodi Fayed were driven in
- He told them it should be sold and warned it became 'unpredictable' to drive
- He said his worst fears were realised as infomation about former crashes came to light in recent months
Daily Mirror/Daily Mail UK, 5 August 2017.
A chauffeur tried desperately to warn the limousine company that the car Diana was driven in was dangerous - and says the news of the fateful night still haunts him two decades after her death.
Karim Kazi, now a successful businessman, tried to tell the owners of Etoile Limousines that the Mercedes S-280 was 'unpredictable', but was ignored.
Earlier this year, it emerged that the car has been 'totalled' at least once before Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed were passengers in 1997.
The Mercedes-Benz S280 pool car was provided by the Paris Ritz Hotel, owned by Diana's lover Dodi Fayed's father, billionaire businessman Mohamed al-Fayed. It was owned by Etoile Limousines, which provided chauffeurs and cars to the Ritz
The Mercedes in which Princess Diana was driven to her death was a dangerous 'rebuilt wreck' but concerns about its safety were ignored according to new claims
Pascal Rostain, a Paris photographer, told a French radio station that the
'hugely dangerous' car had been stolen and driven into the ground earlier in the year.
'This Ritz car was a wreck. It had crashed before, and been rolled over several times,' he said.
The car was ready to be broken up, but permission was then given to 're-make' it, the photographer claimed.
Now one of the company's former drivers, Mr Kazi, has confirmed this, and said the car had been totalled before then as well.
Mr Kazi told the Mirror:
'The car's steering was not safe. I started pointing out faults with the Mercedes in early 1997, before Diana died. For me, it was a car that did not work very well.
He said that he believed the car was 'an accident waiting to happen' after it was rolled 'up to 10 times' at 100mph by a prisoner out on remand and written off by the insurance company.
He added:
'There was something very wrong with it. When the car sped up, it would lose control. There was no dynamic control, it was certainly risky if driven at more than 60km/h (37mph).
In 2008, a British jury delivered an inquest verdict of unlawful killing caused by Diana's 'grossly negligent' chauffeur Henri Paul (right), who lost control as he raced at up to 120mph through the Alma Tunnel while trying to get away from pursuing photographers. (Left, Diana's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, who survived)
'Now that the history of the car has come out, it is clear my fears were correct.'
Mr Rostain identified Karim earlier this year and said he had told the bosses at the limo company to sell the car.
Eric Bousquet said he bought the €85,000 car new in September 1994 when he was a 'young advertising executive'.
Three months later, in January 1995, a prisoner out on remand stole the car, and took it on a joyride in the Paris suburbs.
Travelling at speeds of up to 100mph in country lanes, the escapee rolled the two tonne Mercedes around a dozen times, so it ended up on its roof in a field.
At least one of the company's drivers pointed out faults with the car Diana was killed in
The car was considered to be a write-off, and according to Mr Bousquet 'the insurance refunded me the price I paid for it, because it was pretty much new, considering it was a destroyed car, non repairable.
The car was condemned as scrap, but finally recovered by a mechanic who repaired it and then resold it to Etoile Limousines.
Neils Siegel, who worked for the company at the time, said he bought the Mercedes for €40,000, but refused to discuss claims that it was not road worthy.
The M6 programme carried out a crash test on the same model of Mercedes, and a technical expert said it 'should not have remained on the road', despite being re-built.
It was 'not reparable' and 'dangerous', the expert added, as he offered a view that was supported by insurance brokers.
The current owner of the Mercedes is Jean-Francois Musa, 58, the former boss of Etoile Limousines.
A Scotland Yard investigation into conspiracy theories about Diana's death, led by former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens, reported that experts found no problems with the vehicle.
His report, published in 2006, concluded:
'Both the French and British examinations of the Mercedes have shown that there were no mechanical issues with the car that could have in any way caused or contributed to the crash.'