LONDON – Princess Diana said "My God, oh God," as a passer-by held her hand moments after her car crashed in Paris, a witness told the inquest investigating her death Monday.
Abdelatif Redjil told the court that he and his friend Belkacem Bouzid were passing near the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris on the night of Aug. 31, 1997 when they heard the sounds of a crash and ran inside to help.
In a statement read out to the jury, Redjil described opening the back door of the car and clasping the princess's hand.
"She repeated words like 'My God, my God,"' Redjil said. "I tried to reassure her, telling her in English 'Don't worry.'
"She opened her eyes but she didn't answer me, she simply continued moving her hand, I think she was unconscious."
Redjil described seeing a man he would later learn was Diana's boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, thrown against the rear left hand window. He also said he saw driver Henri Paul, apparently dead, his hand sticking out the window.
Diana, Fayed, and Paul all died after their Mercedes slammed into a pillar while being pursued by paparazzi. French and British police have concluded that driver Henri Paul, acting security chief at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, was well over the legal alcohol limit.
Earlier Monday, an expert testifying at the inquest said the amount of alcohol consumed by Paul was not necessarily a factor in the fatal crash.
John Searle, who was hired by the Ritz Hotel, said drinking was not necessarily relevant.
Searle testified that the amount allegedly consumed by Paul would have increased his risk of accident 10-fold.
That meant, he said, that Paul's risk of having an accident while driving 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) was the same as that of a sober driver traveling 25 miles (40 kilometers).
Fayed's father, Mohamed al Fayed, holds the lease on the Ritz.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox