Victim’s Wife in Paul Walker Crash Files Suit Against Porsche

The death of movie star Paul Walker shocked the world and made international headlines when the car he was riding in crashed in late-2013. The car’s driver, Roger Rodas, was driving his own car, a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT at the time of the accident. Now Rodas’ widow, Kristine Rodas, is suing the automaker, claiming that the deaths of

Walker and her husband was due to a failure in the car’s suspension system and a lack of necessary safety features. As the Chicago Tribune reports, the suit alleges that Rojas was piloting the vehicle at about 55 miles per hours when the car lost control, careened off the road and caught fire after hitting a light pole and three trees. Rodas was an experienced race car driver and car collector who owned multiple Porsches at a given time. According to the lawsuit, the car had been designed to be a Le Mans racecar before being turned into a sports car, but did not have proper crash protection. The suit alleges that a properly functioning crash cage and racing fuel cell would have prevented the fire. It further accuses Porsche Cars North American Inc. of being aware of

these problems but neglecting to correct them or inform owners of potential hazards. The details of the lawsuit differ from the findings of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who concluded in late March that the crash had resulted from “unsafe speeds” of 80-93 miles per hour. The California Highway Patrol also determined that the vehicle had no preexisting conditions that would cause the crash. That investigation noted that the car Rodas was driving included an aftermarket exhaust system that “increased the engine’s horsepower.” Head over to the Chicago Tribune to read the original article.

Kristine M. Rodas’ suit claims that Porsche “designed and manufactured the Carrera GT defectively, causing it to fail to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used in an intended or reasonably foreseeable manner.” She is seeking an unspecified amount in damages, to be determined at the time of trial. She is also seeking a jury trial. The findings detailed in Kristine M. Rodas’ lawsuit differ greatly from the findings of the official investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in late March. That investigation determined that it was “unsafe speeds” which caused the accident. The investigation concluded that the vehicle was traveling at 80 to 93 miles per hour at the time of the crash. The car was traveling in a 45-mph zone.

The California Highway Patrol further determined, after an investigation of the rare vehicle's wreckage, that there were no preexisting conditions in the vehicle that could have caused the crash. The only thing they noted was that an aftermarket exhaust system that had been added would have “increased the engine's horsepower.” Roger W. Rodas was survived by his wife and two young children. Paul Walker was filming “Fast & Furious 7” at the time of his death. His brothers have stepped in to help complete some of Walker's final scenes in the film.