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Monday, September 1, 1997International | National | Business | Sports | Weather
Diana's Driver Had 'Illegal' Blood Alcohol Level: Prosecutor
Princess Diana's driver was legally drunk at the time of the accident that killed her, her boyfriend and their chauffeur, the Paris prosecutor's office said Monday. ``The blood analysis revealed that the alcohol level was illegal,'' prosecutors said in a statement.
They did not give the level, but a spokesman speaking on condition of anonymity later said it was 1.75 grams per liter of blood -- three times the legal limit in France. Under French law, exceeding 0.5 -- the level after about two glasses of wine -- is considered a misdemeanor, while a 0.8 level is considered a criminal offense. The limit translates to a blood alcohol content of about 0.065 percent. Most states in the United States consider a driver legally drunk if the blood alcohol content reaches 0.1 percent, although some have recently toughened the laws to 0.08 percent. France's law, toughened in 1995, is one of the strictest drunken driving statutes in Europe.
A spokeswoman for the Ritz Hotel told the Associated Press the driver was Henri Paul, 41, the hotel's No. 2 security man. Diana and her millionaire boyfriend Dodi Fayed had dined at the hotel Saturday night before they and Paul died in the crash early Sunday, as their Mercedes-Benz sedan was pursued by paparazzi photographers on motorcycles.
Police so far have not been able to talk to the bodyguard who survived the crash. Trevor Rees-Jones suffered a head contusion, a lung injury and facial injuries. His condition was described as grave but not life-threatening, and he remained in intensive care today. Paul, a former French Air Force pilot, was not Fayed's regular driver, who had left earlier in another vehicle as a decoy to throw photographers off the trail.
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