Porsche is responsible for the deaths of Paul Walker and his friend Roger Rodas—or so alleges a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by Rodas’ widow. The incident occurred late last year, when the Carrera GT Rodas was driving—and Walker was riding in—left the road and slammed into a lamppost and several trees before bursting into flames.
According to a report in Automotive News , the lawsuit assigns blame to Porsche for not fitting the racy Carerra GT with a roll cage (because all road cars have those) and/or a fuel cell–style gas tank that could withstand the impact of slamming into a tree without puncturing. The lawsuit also alleges that a suspension failure sent the car out of control in the first place.
Specifically, the suit claims “the Carrera GT was unsafe for its intended use by reason of defects in its manufacture, design, testing, component and constituents, so that it would not safely serve its purpose.” As to Mrs. Rodas’ suspension-failure theory, TMZ is reporting that the widow believes that her husband tried to keep the car on the road, but could not regain control of the car before it struck a light pole.
Despite being represented by celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, we’re not sure how far Mrs. Rodas will get, since she and her legal team are basically going to have to present their own set of facts. The lawsuit effectively dismisses the findings of a four-month investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which pins the blame on Rodas for driving at nearly double the posted speed limit when the crash occurred. According to the investigation, the car was traveling at speeds of 80–93 mph, whereas the lawsuit alleges that the car was traveling just 55 mph, and investigators found the car suffered no mechanical failures prior to the accident. What neither the Sheriff’s investigation nor the lawsuit bring up as a potential cause for the accident is the matter of tire wear, which we explain in our reporting on the incident.
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For its part, Porsche is standing by the L.A. Sherriff’s investigation, according to the AN report. “We are very sorry for the Rodas and Walker families’ loss,” Porsche said in a prepared statement. “The crash was the subject of a detailed investigation by the proper authorities, and their investigation disproves the allegations in the lawsuit. The investigation found that driving at a high speed in a negligent manner caused the crash and concluded that there was no mechanical defect.”
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