Princess Diana was photographed in 1983 at a welcome ceremony in Tauranga, New Zealand.

Royal family

Princess Diana: The Single Act That Could Have Saved Her Life, According to Friend Lady Colin Campbell

The Princess of Wales may have survived the car crash that ultimately took her life if she did one thing says her pal.

by Lucille Barilla

Published on November 10, 2023

2 min read

Princess Diana‘s death was one of the defining moments of the 20th century. The event was an unimaginable shock to the royal family, Diana’s fans, and followers worldwide. As the final season of The Crown begins, the days leading up to and after Diana’s death will be explored again. However, her friend Lady Colin Campbell believes one act could have saved her life.

Princess Diana’s death may have been unavoidable, says her friend

In an interview with GBNews, Lady Colin Campbell stated Diana’s death may have been unavoidable. The topic arose while discussing the final season of Netflix’s The Crown.

The sixth installment of the Netflix series will depict the events leading up to and after the crash that killed Diana, her friend Dodi Al-Fayed, and driver Henri Paul. Trevor Reese-Jones was the only accident survivor in the Pont de l’Alma Tunnel in Paris, France.

Campbell believes one act could have saved Diana’s life that fateful night. She may have survived if she had worn a seatbelt.

“Diana would have survived if she had worn a seatbelt,” Campbell stated. “There have been exhaustive inquiries and investigations done [about that].”

She continued, “When I wrote my posthumous book about Diana, I spoke to all concerned parties. Including the doctor who immediately attended to her. If she had had on a seatbelt, she would have survived.”

Did anyone in the car carrying Princess Diana wear a seatbelt?

According to the Associated Press, of the four occupants in the Mercedes carrying Princess Diana, only one wore a seatbelt. That was the deadly crash‘s sole survivor, Reese-Jones.

At about 12:25 a.m. Diana’s Mercedes entered the Pont de l’Alma Tunnel. Its speed limit is 30 mph.

The car’s driver, Paul, was reportedly exceeding the speed limit. However, the AP reported the Mercedes left 53 feet of skid marks.

Seconds after the car entered the tunnel in the left westbound lane, it struck the 13th concrete pillar dividing it. Both Paul and al-Fayed were killed instantly.

However, Reese-Jones and Diana were alive. Both were rushed to Hospital La Pitié Salpêtrière, where doctors tried valiantly to save the Princess of Wales’s life. At 4 a.m. Diana was declared dead.

Will ‘The Crown’ depict Princess Diana’s death?

Season 6 of The Crown will detail the weeks before and the impact of Princess Diana’s death. It will reportedly not air scenes depicting her death.

Speaking to Deadline, Christian Schwochow, who directed the three crucial season 6 episodes that feature the run-up to Princess Diana’s death, said that though shots were filmed of Diana in the Paris morgue, they were never intended to be included in the final edit.

“We did film Diana, but very respectfully — not in a big close-up,” Schwochow revealed. “It was very, very clear to us that we don’t want to see her dead body.”

He continued, “I actually think that it was not a discussion. Not even in the first version of the cut, we would ever see her body.”

The Crown‘s final season is split into two. The first four episodes, chronicling Diana’s last days, will drop on Nov. 16, and the remaining six will debut on Dec. 14.