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Princess Diana: A look at the fatal car crash’s other victims and sole survivor

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The car crash that claimed Princess Diana‘s life 20 years ago, also killed two others.

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Its sole survivor — Trevor Rees-Jones — was the bodyguard of Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed, and sat in the front seat of the car.

The four were photographed in the car by paparazzi just moments before the accident.

Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed (both partially visible in back seat), bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones (front, left) and driver Henri Paul, in their Mercedes-Benz S280, shortly before the fatal crash in August 1997. Jacques Langevin/scottbaker-inquests.gov.uk via Getty Images

Those who died with the princess in the Paris crash were Al-Fayed and the driver Henri Paul.

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Al-Fayed was the oldest son of billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed, who previously owned London’s luxury department store Harrods.

Security image of Dodi Al-Fayed leaving the Ritz Hotel the day of the car accident. LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

 

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Paul, who drove the car into a pillar, was found to be at fault in the crash with a blood-alcohol level higher than France’s legal limit. Intrusive paparazzi also shouldered some blame, an inquiry by Britain and France ruled in 2008.

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Rees-Jones suffered serious head and chest injuries, and also broke many bones in his face.

He was sedated for nearly two weeks after the accident but eventually recovered. Because of his brain injuries, his memory of the crash is limited.

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Trevor Rees, former bodyguard to Diana, Princess of Wales, arrives at the inquest into her death at the High Court on Jan. 24, 2008 in London, England. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

The bodyguard told the 2008 inquest that he almost didn’t make it into the car that crashed.

“Initially I had been told that Dodi and Diana would travel without security and I said this would not happen, that I would travel in the vehicle with them.,” he said, according to Express UK.

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Rees-Jones published his account of events in a book titled, The Bodyguard’s Story: Diana, The Crash and the Sole Survivor, in 2000.

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According to Metro UK, Rees-Jones now works with the United Nations in Timor.

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