- Paul Walker’s death and the lawsuit that followed
- The Drive article that caught the attention of the lawyers for Meadow Walker
- Could the tires have been the cause as The Drive article theorizes?
It won’t be long before we’ll be at the 10th anniversary of Paul Walker’s death, who was involved in one of the worst fatal car accidents of our lifetime. Some celebrities have died in horrific circumstances, but few have had as much controversy surrounding it. In fact, one author writing for The Drive was contacted by Meadow Walker’s lawyers concerning what they deemed incorrect. What happened with the Fast & Furious actor, and what was the article in question about that sparked a response from the daughter’s lawyers?
Paul Walker’s death and the lawsuit that followed
A memorial at the site of Paul Walker’s car accident | ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
On Nov. 30th, 2013, family, friends, and fans of Paul Walker received terrible news. Walker had been in a horrific accident and had died. The Fast & Furious actor was attending a car show in front of the business he and Roger Rodas owned in Santa Clarita, California.
It was a fundraiser put together to raise funds for the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, according to the All That’s Interesting website. Rodas and Walker decided on a whim to go for a spin in a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT owned by Rodas.
After taking off, the car sped up to 90 to 100 mph, but not far from the shop, hit a curb, which sparked a terrible chain of events. The Porsche then hit a tree and a nearby light pole before hitting another tree and bursting into flames. Employees and friends who saw the accident frantically tried to extinguish the fire, while others tried to pull the men out of the car, but the fire was too intense.
The pair died at the scene. A couple of years later, after everything died down, the actor’s daughter, Meadow Walker, sought to file a lawsuit against Porsche for the wrongful death of her father due to the design flaws in the car her father was in when he crashed. Two years later, Porsche was cleared of any wrongdoing in that car crash lawsuit, but the daughter received a settlement of $10.1 million from the Rodas estate.
The Drive article that caught the attention of the lawyers for Meadow Walker
The writer of The Drive article titled ‘The Truth Behind What Caused Paul Walker’s Fatal Crash’ claimed that they were contacted by a lawyer of Walker’s daughter seeking a wrongful death suit. He explained that representatives of the case asked him to testify in the trial that the Porsche Carrera GT was a dangerous car. However, the author says the opinion wasn’t his; rather, it belonged to the lawyer contacting him.
However, as per the update added to the article, representatives from that law firm contacted The Drive to express their side, which was that no one from that office had contacted the writer about the lawsuit. The law experts felt the author wasn’t considered an engineer, nor did they have any degrees or credentials to weigh in on the case, so there wouldn’t have been any need for them to contact them.
Continuing past this update, the author stated, ” …it is my opinion that the wrongful death lawsuit against Porsche is a greedy lawyer cash grab” They went on to explain that the loved ones of Rodas and Walker had enough money to live on, this lawsuit wasn’t necessary, in his opinion, nor did he even agree with it.
Could the tires have been the cause as The Drive article theorizes?
2005 @Porsche Carrera GT smashes record for most expensive @BringATrailer sale: https://t.co/Qsx0sQdpRt pic.twitter.com/CL41KplFdr
— Car and Driver (@CARandDRIVER) January 7, 2022 Related
The author of the article theorized that the cause of Paul Walker’s accident was likely due to the old tires on the car. This came from an experience he had a year before the accident when he had taken his modified C5 Corvette to an event in Las Vegas. When he arrived at the streetcar invitational, he took his vehicle out for a spin on the track.
Once the car reached 45 mph, the vehicle would slide off the track and onto the gravel. Not long after that, it happened again. He didn’t sustain any injuries that day, but he speculates that he could’ve if the situation were slightly different. He figured out that the tires on the Corvette were six years old. They looked almost new, but they were so old that there wasn’t enough grip on them, which caused him to lose control.
According to the writer, the tires on the Porsche Carrera GT were at least nine years old. Since Rodas was an excellent driver, there should’ve been no reason for the crash other than the old tires, as speculated by the author. He might have been going over the speed limit, but the author believes the two friends would still be alive with a new set of tires.
However, the investigation into the crash determined that the cause was the vehicle going at an unsafe speed for the conditions at the time of the accident. There was no mention of the tires and their condition.
Paul Walker’s life was cut too short the night he died in a fiery crash back in 2013. While investigators felt speed played a huge role in the accident, one article writer felt it was more the age of the tires than anything. Regardless, many fans are sorely missing the Fast & Furious actor.
Keyword: 1 Automotive Publication Was Contacted by Lawyers From Paul Walker’s Daughter After an Insensitive Theory About Her Father’s Death