Paul Walker crash: Driver's widow sues Porsche, alleges design flaws

No surprise....An experienced semi-pro race driver, that owns his own race team and shop, driving too fast in an industrial park = Porsches fault.


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$4.5 million awarded in Porsche Carrera GT case

By Merritt Johnson
Posted Oct 24th 2007 12:38PM

Over two years ago a crash involving a Porsche Carrera GT during a Ferrari Owner's Club track day killed two event participants when they hit the wall at over 100 mph while trying to avoid a Ferrari merging onto the front straightaway. The driver and Carrera GT owner was Ben Keaton, an avid automotive enthusiast who regularly shared his wisdom on the website 6SpeedOnline.com. The car's passenger was Corey Rudl, a prospective Carrera GT buyer who wanted to take a ride. The tragic loss of these two lives brought out a great debate in the safety of California Speedway's tight infield road course, the responsibility of the event organizers, and the design of the Porsche Carrera GT itself.

While the track event participates signed waivers noting that they were aware of the inherent dangers associated with driving at high speeds on a closed course, those waivers were dependent on who was found to be negligent in the event of an incident. Tracy Rudl, the wife of passenger Corey Rudl, filed a lawsuit claiming gross negligence by many parties associated with the track event. She recently received a settlement of approximately $4.5 million. The contributing parties to the settlement fund were 2% from the merging Ferrari driver, 8% from Porsche, 41% from California Speedway and Ferrari Owner's Club and finally 49% from the Carrera GT driver's estate.
[Source: Sports Car Market Magazine]



Stories such as this one can greatly divide opinion. On one hand, two guys lost their lives voluntarily participating in a dangerous event. On the other hand, the extent of the damage could have been reduced, if not completely avoided, by greater thought and care on the part of the race track and event organizers in the areas of visibility and pit-in/pit-out coordination. Then there's the debate about how safe the Porsche Carrera GT is to drive at high speeds. Hopefully the result of this lawsuit will not scare off other event organizers due to liability, but merely cause them to put more thought into eliminating potential safety issues.

 

Supposedly these car are notoriously "difficult" to handle, with even the realatively experienced driver.

With a novice they are deadly if not handled with real kid gloves.

BUT, that does not make them "Bad Cars."



A "High Performance" anything, is potentially deadly to anyone. THAT is the allure of these machines. And sadly sometimes they are true to their nature and turn "potential" into "reality."

 

Good luck with the suit.

They admit to doing 55 in a 45 mph zone. Isn't the driver culpable and at least partly at fault?


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Jay Leno....

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt43DHj4ngw]Jay Leno Crashed Porsche Carrera GT Years Before Paul Walker Accident - YouTube[/ame]

 

When did this become a porsche general discussion forum?

 

This kinda disgusts me.. so American: "Its everyone elses fault but mine... I can act as an irresponsible as I want, and not be held accountable."

Should be thrown out. Then again, its Kalifornia.

 

What exactly is it about the Carrera GT that is supposed to be so dangerous?

 

The Ferrari Owners Club event at Fontana which set the precedent...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isU6roLVHE0]Porsche Carrera GT crash - YouTube[/ame]

 

You have to actually know how to operate a car in order to drive it.

 

Exactly.

 

Anything and everything and is dangerous in the hands of someone that is not experienced in it's use.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eJ0iGZ7Ms8]Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - cork on fork - YouTube[/ame]

 

The NHTSA did not perform crash tests on the Carrera GT, and it says so right on the window sticker of the car. It was still allowed for sale because of low production numbers, and buyers and owners of the car should be responsible for knowing that the Carrera GT was not tested to withstand crashes.....

Rodas was a professional race car driver, but he was also human, and humans make mistakes. Everyone is so caught up in his "professional" driving career that they dismiss the fact that he could have made a mistake.

 

HE made the mistake......inform his wife's atty.

 

The CGT was crash tested in Europe at least. So it was tested to withstand crashes and AFAIK, the european crash tests are more severe than the US (But i could be wrong.).

In any case, it seems they are also implying the suspension failed which led the car to crash. Then the tank didnt offer enough protection against fire.

From what i remember the investigation found that the crash happened due to inadequate speed and 9 years old tires.

 

Maybe Paul Walker's family will sue the estate of Kristine Rodasues husband since he was driving.

 

Only 1 person to blame here and that's the person driving the car, he made a mistake and 2 people died, end of story.

 

Their lawsuit should be thrown out of court. The final police investigation revealed that the car was going over 100mph in an industrial park on a sweeping curve.

The operator of the vehicle was negligent.

I hope Porsche fights this.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/coroner-paul-walker-porsche-hit-668371

 

This will make for an easy defense, plus the fact that he was an experienced race driver, and there was no other car involved makes this case much different than the one 9 years ago.

Yep, Paul's daughter has a case against the driver's estate.....strong case.

 

So a Southern California lawyer filed a lawsuit against Boeing within days of the Malaysia flight gone missing. Now this lawyer obviously KNOWS that Boeings plane was obviously at fault. Somehow he KNEW that the planes manufacturer was the guilty party.
I haven't read anything further about this misguided lawsuit.

Welcome to our world. Show me the MONEY!

 

Porsches statement:

“We are very sorry for the Rodas and Walker families’ loss,” Porsche said Tuesday in a prepared statement. “The crash was the subject of a detailed investigation by the proper authorities [L.A. County Sheriff and California Highway Patrol], 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.”

Rodas’ widow chose Los Angeles-area lawyer Mark Geragos, whose clients include convicted murderer and death-row inmate Scott Peterson, embattled entertainer Chris Brown and NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield.---LET THE CIRCUS BEGIN!

Rodas and Walker co-owned an auto racing team/exotic car shop named Always Evolving.


Read more: Kristine Rodas sues Porsche for wrongful death of husband Roger - Autoweek
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Never underestimate the creativity of the lawyers. My guess is they find a way to show the car had a flaw that caused it to burst into flames. The bad handling of the car at the limit will be a tougher sell because it was being driven aggressively on public roads. So probably go for the Porsche fire problem. The 911 GT3 is having some problems with that too.

 

I imagine Porsche took a reading from the ECU after the accident. That should tell them what RPM and gear they were in and from that I assume speed would be no problem to figure out. With all the electronics on cars these days it's pretty hard to come up with a white lie.

 

55 MPH?? They will soon go after the landscaper who planted the tree.
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