Safety groups say the accident has already focused public attention on road risks and hope that this can be used to promote safer driving. Following the accident - in which the driver was found to have had more than the legal level of alcohol - European Union Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock has called for an EU-wide drink-drive limit of nearly half the British level. The current legal limit in Britain is 80 milligrammes, however Kinnock is calling for the EU limit to be set at 50 - which is already the case in France, Holland, Austria and Greece - and has won widespread support from British ministers.

Meanwhile road safety organisation Brake is calling for a Europe-wide road safety review. It suggests measures including better testing and education of drivers, improved policing of the roads and tougher penalties for those who break the law. Writing in the organisation's newsletter, executive director Mary Williams said: 'Diana's death is the most high-profile road accident in history - most deaths on the roadside do not even make the newspapers. Yet like most deaths on the road, this terrible tragedy seems likely to have been caused by failures to abide by road safety laws.'