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According to chauffeur Lafaye's deposition, Musa also knew that the car was unstable and tended to "skate out at the rear end." Lafaye told the judge that the Mercedes "did not hold the road. You had to know this car to drive it safely, and Henri Paul had never driven it." This claim is backed up by Jean Pietri, a veteran French automotive engineer who has independently analyzed the physical phenomena surrounding the accident. By comparing the mathematical curve of the Mercedes' trajectory with the actual tire marks left on the road surface, Pietri concludes that the car "tended systematically to veer to the right." That would help explain why Paul was unable to avoid hitting the Fiat Uno in the right lane as he tried to steer around it. The inherent instability of the vehicle, says Pietri, could be due to faulty shock absorbers or, more likely, to a misalignment of the wheels.
There was reason to believe that the Mercedes had mechanical problems before Paul ever took the wheel. The car had been stolen in April 1997, stripped for parts and repaired at a cost of more than $20,000. Though the Mercedes passed a police inspection on July 7, 1997, Lafaye's testimony indicates that there were still some doubts about its roadworthiness. Thus the question arises: Why was that particular car chosen to take Dodi Fayed and the Princess of Wales on a high-speed drive?
At least a dozen cars and chauffeurs from a different rental company, International Limousine, were available at the Ritz that night. Another car was also available to Dodi: his father Mohammed al Fayed's green bulletproof Mercedes 500 SEL with sophisticated security features, which was sitting at its usual spot in the underground Vendome parking garage. "I don't understand why this car was not used that night," a senior Ritz official told TIME. "Especially since Dodi had taken it on other occasions."
--THE DRIVER Postmortem tests showed that Paul was legally drunk and under the influence of two prescription drugs on the night of the accident. Less known is the fact that Paul's blood contained an abnormally high level of carbon monoxide (CO): 20.7%, enough to provoke somnolence, severe dizziness or even put some people in a coma. "I don't see how he could walk in that state, much less take the wheel," says the head of the antipoison center at a major Paris hospital.
How Paul's CO level got so high remains a mystery. He could not have breathed exhaust fumes in the tunnel, since he died instantly of a severed spinal cord. If exhaust had leaked into the car's interior en route to the tunnel, all passengers would have been affected. But Dodi's autopsy showed no significant trace of CO. One possible source might be a faulty heater. But the heating systems in Paul's apartment and office, unused in August, were found to function normally. Experts say a "massive" exposure to certain industrial products, like the solvent dichloromethane, could produce elevated CO levels, as could heavy cigarette smoking. Paul did not smoke cigarettes and only occasionally puffed on a cigar. Judge Stephan has ordered a special investigation into this enigma.