Diana Diana Crash Location

From this spot, you are looking at the entrance to the Pont de l’Alma underpass, with the Eiffel Tower in the background. The crash did not happen right at the opening you see here. Diana’s car entered the tunnel and continued a short way inside before it hit the 13th central pillar supporting the tunnel roof. That places the impact inside the covered section, not outside on the approach.

The car was a Mercedes carrying Diana, Dodi Fayed, driver Henri Paul, and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones. It was traveling through the underpass when Paul lost control. The Mercedes struck the 13th pillar, then came to rest inside the tunnel. Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul died at the scene. Trevor Rees-Jones survived with serious injuries. Diana was removed from the wreckage alive and taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died later that morning.

So when standing here, the important thing to picture is that the fatal point was not far away in another part of Paris. It was just beyond the entrance, inside the tunnel itself. The open road drops into the underpass, the roof begins, and the central support pillars divide the lanes. The 13th one is the pillar tied to the crash. Today, cars still move through the tunnel quickly, and from above it can feel almost ordinary. But just below this view is one of the most recognized accident sites in modern history.