You may want to rethink the last; she was in a big Merc IIRC.  Mercedes
and Volvo have been traditionally among the best cars worldwide in
crash safety.  If you check the IIHS website you will find that they
are still pretty darn good; whereas I heard on the radio this AM that
the new midsize Ford was one of the worst.  So much for your theory
that "American = Better."

Of course, crash safety is just one small part of overall safety; but
Mercs tend to accelerate, handle, and brake better than their American
counterparts as well.  They have to; they know their intended audience
is going to drive on the Autobahn eventually.

The answer to your question, "why did she have to die," is simple
physics.  If you hit an immovable object going fast enough, even the
finest engineered crumple zones aren't going to be able to absorb
enough of that force to keep the passengers from experiencing lethal
G-forces (likely what happened here) as there simply isn't enough
distance to crumple to bring everything to a stop smoothly and/or the
forces become so massive that passenger compartment intrusion happens,
even though every attempt has been made to avoid it.  I say that the
former is most likely as being a princess, she was likely riding in the
back seat.

Now we've done it, C*rl T*yl*r is going to come out of the woodwork
again.  Thanks for bringing this up...

nate

(set killfiles to "stun")

She was in a BIG Mercedes.  They are at least as safe as American
cockiedoodie.

They were traveling at a very high rate of speed.

The Queen didn't like her.

Pusswuss Charlie didnt like her.

Almost everybody else loved her.

She died.

Go fish!