Crash Photos Get No Takers In U.S.

Color photographs of a trapped and mortally injured Princess Diana, clearly recognizable through the windows of the wrecked Mercedes Benz, have been offered for sale in the United States.

So far, no one has published them.

But their mere existence is fueling a bottom-up debate over journalistic ethics that began with news that Diana had died after a high-speed race away from photographers in hot pursuit.

“To my mind, there’s blood on those photographs,” Phil Buncon, editor in chief of the tabloid Star Magazine, said Tuesday, explaining his refusal to buy the pictures - which came with a pricetag of $250,000.

“The person that took those photographs contributed to the accident,” he said. “It was beyond the pale.”

Buncon, who said the photographs showed “a presumably unconscious” Princess Diana and “really weren’t very pleasant,” said he expects they will make it into public view - if only on the Internet.