From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!npoiv!alice!rabbit!xchar
Newsgroups: net.auto
Title: Re: seatbelts
Article-I.D.: rabbit.752
Posted: Thu Sep 16 00:30:54 1982
Received: Thu Sep 16 03:56:50 1982


    MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AP)--The stunned people of Monaco, sud-
denly bereft of their storybook princess, filed in mournful lines
past the former Grace Kelly's coffin Wednesday, in the hilltop
palace where the fabled Hollywood beauty first joined them 26
years ago.
    Princess Grace, the American-born actress who won an Oscar in
a brief but triumphant film career, died late Tuesday of a cere-
bral hemorrhage at age 52, about 36 hours after plunging down a
ravine in her automobile.
    Word of her death shocked the people of Monaco because her
injuries--reportedly two broken ribs, a fractured collarbone and
a broken right leg--were thought not to be critical.
    Although no detailed report on the cause of death was issued,
medical experts elsewhere noted that undetected or seemingly
minor head injuries sometimes produce cerebral bleeding that can
suddenly become fatal.
    Grace's 10-year-old British-made Rover sedan missed a nearly
360-degree turn on a steep, twisting road that local drivers say
wreaks havoc with brakes.
    The car glanced off the end of a guardrail, entered a small
feeder road and then tumbled down 120 feet through a stand of sea
pines and thick brush.
    Palace officials and police insist Grace was at the wheel,
despite reports by witnesses that her daughter, Stephanie, who at
17 is too young for a license, might have been driving.
    It is clear that neither had attached seatbelts, despite a
French law requiring the use of belts at all times.
    ``What does it matter, anyway?'' said Gerard Py, a physical
therapist from Monaco who drove out for a look. ``They didn't in-
volve anyone else--it was just one car. Who was driving concerns
only the family.''