Would the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class have saved Lady Di?

Princess Diana could have been alive today if the rear-seat safety package in the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class limousine had been available in 1997.

The Princess of Wales died as the result of a massive impact with a tunnel support pier in Paris while riding in the rear of the then-current Benz flagship.

The crash, which happened almost exactly 23 years ago, was blamed on the driver, Henri Paul from the Hotel Ritz Paris, after a series of high-profile inquiries.

No-one challenged the protection provided by the S-Class flagship and, to this day, no-one from the German luxury maker is prepared to make any official comment about anything to do with the crash or the death of the princess.

Instead, Benz has always been proud of the long series of safety and technical innovations that were first seen in the S-Class, starting from four-wheeled ABS anti-skid brakes on the W116 generation from the 1970s.

But the W140 involved in Princess Di’s dreadful crash is a technological baby compared to the mature new W223 which has just been previewed in Europe ahead of Australian sales in the first half of 2021.

Looking beyond the infotainment package for the rear seats, which now matches the front with up to five individual screens, the new S-Class makes dramatic advances in safety.

The key is a frontal airbag but there is also a side-impact protection package that advances the Pre-Safe system already in use in a number of Mercedes-Benz models.

The rear passenger cell is also considerably bigger than the outgoing car, with 23mm of extra width and 16mm of added headroom, which provides extra survival space as well as more room to relax.

The key innovation is a rear airbag to provide frontal protection for passengers.

It is a complex, tubular design instead of a single giant bag, and has been developed to deploy in a way that Mercedes-Benz describes as “gently”.

The total volume of the inflated bag is up to 70 litres, with 16 litres in the tubular supports.

The other rear-focused system, although it also protects people in front, is the addition to the Pre-Safe system.

Pre-Safe was introduced on the W220-series S Class in 2002 and, once sensors detected an unavoidable impact, it pre-primed the car’s seat belts and moved the front electric seats back to create more survival space.

The latest development, Pre-Safe Impulse Side, uses sensors to monitor a side-impact threat and then raises the side of the car by up to eight centimetres using the car’s Active Body Control in the air suspension.

The effect of the system is to engage the protection provided by the car’s side sills and not just the doors, jacking up the left or right-side bodywork within tenths of a second.

“It can reduce the loads acting on the occupants because it directs the impact forces towards particularly resistance structures in the lower area of the vehicle,” says Benz.