Paul Walker's father sues Porsche over actor's death

[Peer]

The father of actor Paul Walker, who was killed as a passenger in a 2013 crash of a Porsche Carrera GT, is suing the automaker and charging the car was unsafe:

Paul Walker's father sues Porsche over actor's death - Nov. 27, 2015

-- peer

[rick3000]

Unfortunately, the only one who will win here is the lawyer that convinced him to file suit. When Porsche wins he will likely owe Porsche their legal fees. If the car was so unsafe why not sue the NHTSA for allowing it to be sold in the US.

[10/10ths]

You start dying the moment you are born.

Nobody gets out alive.

You drive a super car and lose control and hit a tree sideways at 90 mph and bad things happen.

What do you call 4,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start.

[Fintro11]

what do you expect when the tires are that old ....

[Jamesp]

I think the manufacturer of the wheel bearings should be sued. Without the dangerously low friction provided by the wheel bearings, the car could not move in such a perilous manner. And what about the manufacturer of the gasoline? It should not be able to burn if it spills on the ground. Who in their right mind would suspect that could happen? In fact, the manufacturers of every part associated with the car should be jointly liable for for providing these risky products to Porsche allowing the end product to be foisted on completely innocent unsuspecting consumers. All parties associated in any manner with the manufacture of Porsches, or any cars for that matter, should be sued into oblivion.

[BIGJake111]

Sue the tire company, sue nhtsa, sue the poor bloke who put the tree there, sue the company that supplied the seat belts. Today's society is frighteningly litigious.

Accidents happen, and sometimes result in fatalities.

It's terrible that he couldn't walk away alive, but what do you expect in a hyper car on old tires going over the limit.

[husker boxster]

I might be a 7th cousin twice removed. Think I should file too? It's been devastating to me the F&F franchise will come to an end (I hope).

Geesh. I get a kick out of how both suits downgrade the speed by 25% +. IIRC, didn't one of the wheels go flying across the parking lot and into a building several stories high? That doesn't happen at a mundane 60mph. Some engineer should be able to figure out the force required to do that. But it was a 1-nutter and probably faulty too.

[Timco]

I'm ready to sue PW's family for him making stupid teenager movies that promote street racing.

Those boys obeyed all traffic laws.

[jdraupp]

If I die in a carrera gt going Mach 1, I feel like that's a pretty good way to go if you had to make a list. You know the death was instantaneous. This lawsuit is going nowhere. I only hope Porsche pays to litigate it instead of giving some bs settlement.

[BIGJake111]

What's annoying is that I doubt Paul walker would ever sue over this.

[Retroman1969]

Funny, I don't recall any of James Dean's family ever suing Porsche, or even the guy that pulled out in front of him, or Ford for making a car that was bigger than the Porsche......
Greed, redirection of responsibility, and opportunism rule more than ever now.

Common sense and taking responsibility: they're not just a polite suggestion.

[thstone]

This lawsuit is based on the following precedent in which a Porsche Carrera GT crashed and killed both the driver and the passenger. The passgener's family sued everyone and ultimately won $4.5M.

Sound familiar?

Here is an excerpt of the case;

The most relevant case to the Paul Walker situation began on June 5, 2005, when both driver Ben Keaton and passenger Corey Rudl were killed in a crash at Auto Club Speedway in California while lapping during a Ferrari Club track day. A Ferrari pulled onto the track, and Keaton made an evasive maneuver, ending up hitting a concrete barrier at about 100 mph.

There were multiple defendants -- the track, the club, the Ferrari driver, and even the estate of Keaton, because Keaton “failed to inform Rudl that he had been having handling problems with the Porsche, and that he had a recent incident where he lost control of the car.”

Porsche was, of course, named in the suit. The lawyer for the passenger's family claimed, “The expensive sports car was not equipped with Electronic Stability Control, a life-saving safety feature which would have prevented Mr. Rudl's death.”

The family of already-millionaire Rudl was awarded $4.5M two years after the crash. Porsche was on the hook for 8 percent of the award ($360,000) or $80,000 less than the Porsche Carrera GT cost new. The driver's (Keaton) family was responsible for 49 percent and the track and organizers were responsible for most (41 percent)of the settlement.

And before this;

In 1983, there was another similar lawsuit where Porsche was sued directly when a husband and father who was a passenger in a Turbo 930 was killed when the driver lost control on a city street and went into oncoming traffic. The jury awarded $2.5 million, which was upheld on appeal. Following this verdict, Porsche started offering driver's training to purchasers of its high-performance, turbocharged vehicles.

I think that the difference in both of these cases is that the plaintiff was a passenger and not the driver. As a passenger who did nothing wrong, juries have proven to be sympathetic to their claims. Thus, the Walker family is probably on fairly solid ground in pursuing this lawsuit.

Don't get me wrong, I am simply summarizing the facts around the case for everyone to consider all of the angles. Personally, I think lawsuits like this are nothing more than shakedowns.

[BYprodriver]

Originally Posted by husker boxster

I might be a 7th cousin twice removed. Think I should file too? It's been devastating to me the F&F franchise will come to an end (I hope).

Geesh. I get a kick out of how both suits downgrade the speed by 25% +. IIRC, didn't one of the wheels go flying across the parking lot and into a building several stories high? That doesn't happen at a mundane 60mph. Some engineer should be able to figure out the force required to do that. But it was a 1-nutter and probably faulty too.

The starter flew 200ft & broke thru a 2nd story window. I believe all wheels were still attached.

[BoxsterSteve]

Originally Posted by BYprodriver

The starter flew 200ft & broke thru a 2nd story window.

Wow. Cars don't disintegrate like that when driven semi-sanely.
To hoon like that on a public roadway is to ask for trouble, and by golly Miss Molly, it answered.
The driver wouldn't be completely at fault here, would he?!

[husker boxster]

Originally Posted by BoxsterSteve

The driver wouldn't be completely at fault here, would he?!

The driver doesn't have deep pockets.

Yes, it was the starter that flew off.

[Xpit77]

The case should be negligence by the driver to cause the accident. Can it be proven that Walker said drive fast and over the speed limit to the driver ? Not the car.

[jdraupp]

Guns don't kill people...people kill people. The Carrera gt may be a very expensive bullet, but without human input it just sits there. The lack of culpability in this society is getting out of hand. I'd stage a giant protest of this lawsuit but unfortunately I have a job.

[jb92563]

ugh....really?!, loosing control of performance car is something Posche can be responsible for?

I thought the car purchase agreement already had legal language that released Porsche from responsibility for driving dangerously.

If the government keeps on growing I predict a future where you will not be allowed to control your own car, or perhaps even your own behavior

[JayG]

since neither my Boxster or my Targa has Stability Control does that mean if I wrap on around a pole and get killed my family has a strong case and could get big bucks just because I did something stupid???

[BIGJake111]

If the car randomly caught fire while going 40 mph or something it would be different.

Cars don't wreck themselves unless they have defects.

No defect was at play here therefore the consequences once the accident takes place are harsh.

Besides the street legal race car argument sucks on a safety standpoint. One of the main reasons that the boxster is safe is because for the most part it's the same bits and pieces that some gt cup driver is likely to smash into a wall on track. Being race derived is actually an argument FOR safety.

Essentially the CGT was a prematurely canceled Le Mans car that Porsche traded its entry in Le Mans with Audi for an SUV platform. That being said assuming the CGT is anything like the GT1 or 919. Paul walker is simply a lot less lucky then Mark Webber.



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