Sir, - Numerous theories and suspects have been proposed as to the cause of the fatal Paris crash - excessive speed, the possible inebriation of the driver, the alleged antics of the paparazzi, etc. It occurs to me that questions need to be asked not only as to the cause of the accident, but as to why it proved fatal to three of the four occupants.
I believe the answer to this question lies in the design of the tunnel itself, in which many deaths have occurred over the years. Had the row of columns into one of which the car crashed, causing it to somersault, been fitted with an ARMCO barrier, such a head-on collision would not have been possible. Instead, the car would have glanced off or broad-sided, possibly then colliding with the opposite wall, and effectively pin-balling its way along the tunnel to a stop.
In this case it is unlikely that the car would have somersaulted, and with the structural strength of the Mercedes 600, the occupants might have emerged little more than bruised and shaken from the experience.
Nobody would suggest that ARMCO barriers are aesthetically pleasing, but has this victory of form over function cost the lives of a modern icon and her companions? - Yours, etc.,
Leopardstown Valley, Dublin 18.