The Daily Mirror | December 1, 2004
By Stephen Moyes

A FRIEND of Princess Diana has told how she had a car crash two years before she died which she blamed on sabotage.

Simone Simmons, 48, is ready to testify to the Scotland Yard inquiry into Diana's fatal accident in Paris in 1997.

Two years earlier, the princess's green convertible had hit another car as she drove away from a healing centre in Marylebone, central London.

Ms Simmons said: "Diana rang to tell me. She was panic-stricken. She told me that the brakes had suddenly failed.

"Fortunately she wasn't hurt. It seemed to reinforce her belief that someone was trying to kill her.

"Diana said later that the garage confirmed it was just a mechanical failure, and not foul play.

"But it shook her up badly and she was convinced that someone had tampered with the car."

Last week the Daily Mirror revealed how Diana wrote in a note that Charles might be plotting her death in similar fashion.