14 DAY TRIAL // Actor Paul Walker died over the weekend just miles north of Los Angeles after he and his friend crashed into a tree and the car, which the friend was driving, exploded instantly. Fresh reports suggest that a malfunction may have caused the tragedy and not excessive speeding, as earlier believed.
Paul and business partner and longtime friend Roger Rodas got in the two-seater Porsche Carrera GT to drive back to LA after attending together a charity event for Philippines typhoon relief. Roger was driving and, as TMZ puts it, he was a “world class driver” with plenty of experience.
Though initial reports said that speed was a factor in the crash, sources with Always Evolving, the shop owned by the two where the car was usually kept and taken for maintenance work, claim otherwise, namely that “they saw evidence of a fluid burst and subsequent fluid trail before the skid marks at the accident scene.”
“The AE sources point to the fact there is a noticeable absence of skid marks until just before the point of impact. They say if Roger had lost control the skid marks would show swerving, but instead the marks were in a straight line. They feel this cements the theory the driver didn't have steering control,” the celebrity publication writes.
That the Porsche had been acting up is already well known. In fact, the two were driving to a shop to have someone look at it right when they crashed, within yards of their destination.
“Also suspicious – the fire spreading so quickly in the front of the car. The sources say flames would be expected in the rear where the engine is, but fire in the front reinforces their theory of a fluid leak of some sort,” TMZ writes, adding that the car had not been modified.
Moreover, it had been driven only on a few occasions, which must mean that it was a factory defect that caused the driver to lose control, crash into a tree and then made the car explode.
Fans have turned the accident site into a memorial for the actor. He leaves behind a 15-year-old daughter.