Porsche Faces Lawsuit From Paul Walker's Daughter

Meadow Walker is the 16-year-old daughter of the late Paul Walker, and she is filing a lawsuit against Porsche.

A 2005 Carrera GT driven by Paul’s friend Roger Rodas is at the center of the suit, as it was the car in which Rodas and Walker died after Rodas lost control and crashed on November 30, 2013. Meadow Walker’s lawsuit alleges that Porsche produced a car with serious defects affecting its safety, and that these defects resulted in the untimely death of her father.

Per Meadow Walker’s complaint, the Porsche Carrera GT has a history of instability and the automaker took no steps to correct the issue. Additionally, the suit alleges, the implementation of the seat belt installation created an unsafe environment should the car be in a violent impact. The claim is that this seatbelt placement caused Walker to become injured during the initial crash and then trapped while the car caught fire and burned to the ground. The complaint continues that this model of Porsche utilized very weak side-impact beams in an effort to keep the car light.

Her lawsuit further alleges that the Porsche was traveling between 63 and 71 miles per hour and suddenly lost control. Police reports filed by the LA County Sheriff and California Highway Patrol, however, stated that the cause of the accident was an unsafe speed and not a result of mechanical issues. In their reports, the Porsche was traveling more than 90 miles per hour before it struck a tree and a street light.

Rodas’ widow also filed a lawsuit against Porsche a year ago claiming mechanical defects relating to the car. Porsche denied those claims, and has yet to comment on this latest suit.

It’s a tragic story of a daughter losing her father too early. Still, it’s hard not to look at this as an attempt to shift blame and find fault with others when the evidence seems to say Rodas and Walker were pushing the car far too hard on a public street. We wish they never crashed, but we don’t blame Porsche for it happening. If there’s evidence to prove otherwise, perhaps it will come to light in this case.