14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, attorneys for Paul Walker’s 16-year-old daughter Meadow Rain Walker filed a lawsuit in her name against Porsche, claiming the actor would have still been alive if the Porsche Carrera GT he and friend Roger Rodas were in had been properly equipped.
The car is dangerous because it has countless defects, the wrongful death lawsuit alleged. It made it so that both men lost their lives, when the accident could have been easily prevented - and Porsche should be made to pay for it.
The wrongful death lawsuit
On November 30, 2013, during the Thanksgiving break from shooting the seventh “Furious” film, Walker and Rodas were driving home in the Carrera GT, with Rodas behind the wheel. He lost control of the car, which swerved and went off the road, smashing into a tree, where it burst into flames and was burnt to a crisp.
A police investigation determined that Rodas was speeding, and that it wasn’t the crash that killed the two men but the fire that consumed the car.
According to the wrongful death lawsuit, the accident could have been prevented or, at the very least, the two passengers in the car could have survived it, if only Porsche had equipped the car accordingly.
The GT doesn’t have a stabilization system to prevent swerving, the lawsuit claims. What it does have is a series of defects that turn it into a death trap on wheels, as this tragedy proves. The lawsuit also says that Walker and Rodas would still be alive if not for Porsche.
Porsche refuses responsibility for the crash
It took the carmaker a while to address these claims, but it’s doing so in a statement to CNN. Calvin Kim with Porsche Cars North America says they’re yet to be served, so they don’t know yet the specifics of the case.
However, Kim can speak for the claim that Porsche killed Walker and his friend slash business associate: it lacks substance.
The police investigation gave the exact cause of the crash, so there is no merit to this lawsuit.
“As we have said before, we are saddened whenever anyone is hurt in a Porsche vehicle, but we believe the authorities' reports in this case clearly established that this tragic crash resulted from reckless driving and excessive speed,” Kim says.