Paul Walker’s daughter, Meadow Walker, has settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Porsche, The Blast reports. The suit was filed in 2015, about a year after Paul Walker’s November 2013 death. He and Roger Rodas were killed when a Porsche Carrera GT driven by Rodas collided with a tree and light pole after losing control.
The wrongful death suit filed against Porsche alleged, among other things, that the automaker had designed the car’s seat belt in such a way that it could not be released by the victim following the violent impact. The suit also alleged a number of other engineering and safety deficiencies with the Carrera GT, including the lack of side door reinforcements, a stability control system and adequate fuel hose fittings that could have prevented a fire. The lawsuit effectively painted the Carrera GT as a race car licensed for the road (per Porsche’s marketing), but one which lacked proper safety systems, and alleged that due to the design deficiencies Walker was unable to escape the vehicle before a fire broke out despite surviving the initial crash. Specifically, the suit alleged that while the shoulder belt anchor was pulled backward along with the rear engine compartment, the seat belt anchor remained in place, causing internal injuries to Walker and trapping him in the vehicle.
“This snapped Walker’s torso back with thousands of pounds of force, thereby breaking his ribs and pelvis, flattening his seat and trapping him in a supine position, where he remained alive until the vehicle erupted into flames one minute and 20 seconds later,” the suit alleged.
The details of the settlement have not been disclosed, aside from the request by both parties to the court that the wrongful death case be dismissed, according to The Blast. The documents obtained by The Blast note that Walker’s father has also settled a separate suit against Porsche.
Paul Walker’s daughter files suit against Porsche
The daughter of Paul Walker, Meadow Walker, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against defendants Porsche Cars of North America and Beverly Hills Porsche, the Los Angeles Times reports.Walker was …
In the months following the crash, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol released an investigation report that blamed unsafe driving, rather than a fault with the car, as the cause of the crash. The two men were killed when the Carrera GT, driven by Rodas, skidded off the road in a business park seconds after the two departed a charity event, with the car colliding with a tree and a light pole. The investigation determined that the two were killed almost instantly, and moments later the car itself had caught fire as a result of a fuel leak. The agencies investigating the crash used closed-circuit footage to determine that the car was traveling at 93 mph inside the business park when it left the roadway.
The investigation also noted that the tires worn by the car at the time were nine years old — a fact which contributed to the crash — but the investigation did not state to what degree the age of the tires contributed to the car’s loss of control.
Paul Walker crash: 93-mph speed to blame
The investigation into the Porsche Carrera GT crash that led to the deaths of actor Paul Walker and Roger Rodas has been completed. Unsafe driving, rather than a fault with the car or the road …
Porsche issued a statement following the release of the investigators’ report, voicing support for the probe’s findings and denying any design or engineering faults with the car.
“It is a sad day for us whenever anyone is injured in one of our cars, and this was a particularly tragic event,” the automaker stated in March 2014. “At the same time, the results of the investigation show that, according to all the available evidence, this crash was caused by dangerous driving at speeds much too high for the road in question. There is also evidence that this particular vehicle had been altered from its original design state and had not been maintained properly. However, there is no evidence of any mechanical malfunction. We stand by our Carrera GT and by the investigation and conclusions of the responsible authorities.”
The settlement of this suit concludes the litigation by surviving family members of both men against each other and the automaker; a federal court in April 2016 had ruled against Rodas’ widow in her suit for negligence and wrongful death against Porsche, a suit that alleged a “defect and failure of a suspension component in the right rear wheel area.” Meadow Walker had already settled a civil suit with the estate of Roger Rodas for $10.1 million in 2014.