Speeding motorcyclist entered tunnel, Diana inquest told

A motorist told today how she was overtaken by a speeding motorcyclist heading for the tunnel where Diana, Princess of Wales’s Mercedes crashed moments later.

Marine Boghen was about to slow down to leave the Cours Albert 1er expressway along the River Seine in Paris when the large bike passed her.

She told French police the motorbike was travelling at about 110-120 km/h (68-75 mph), the inquest at the High Court in London into the deaths of Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed heard.

Less than a minute after she turned off the expressway, Ms Boghen heard the “strong” noise of a collision coming from the Pont de l’Alma underpass beneath her.

It was loud enough to make out over her car stereo, she said.

“It was the sound of the impact of something into a wall – a strong noise, strong enough for me to hear it,” she told the inquest via videolink from Paris.

Ms Boghen was driving along the expressway in her dark brown Lancia Y10 car with a friend when the motorcycle overtook her.

She recalled the appearance of the bike, but could not give a description of its single rider.

“It was a dark colour, it was a big motorbike. It was no scooter, it was a motorbike, a proper one, and there were big cases on the side,” she said.

Moments later, as she waited at traffic lights in the Place de l’Alma, she heard the collision.

“Less than a minute elapsed – maybe 30-40 seconds in time after I got off of Cours Albert 1er until the time I heard the noise,” she said in a statement read to the jury.

Ms Boghen did not see anything and continued on her way without visiting the crash scene, she told the inquest.

Diana, Dodi and their driver Henri Paul were killed following the crash in Pont de l’Alma underpass on August 31, 1997.