PAUL WALKER'S DAD SUES........

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.

The suit alleges that Porsche advertised the vehicle as "a racing car licensed for use on the road." But in fact the car "lacked safety features that are found on well-designed racing cars or even Porsche's least expensive road cars -- features that could have prevented the accident or, at a minimum, allowed Paul Walker to survive the crash," the suit continues.

"" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;">

Walker's father, Paul William Walker III, argues the car should have had electronic stability control, a common feature in many cars today. It also charges the side door reinforcement was made of weaker materials than what is found in mass-market cars such as the Honda Civic.

According to the suit, the seat belt design trapped Walker after the crash, and that he was alive until the car burst into flames 1 minute and 20 seconds after the crash.

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday.

The claims are similar to those made in a separate suit filed against Porsche on behalf of Walker's minor daughter, Meadow, his sole heir. Walker's father is bringing the suit on behalf of Walker's estate, of which he is the executor.

Walker, 40, star of the Fast & The Furious movies, was killed when the Porsche he was ridingslammed into a light pole.

The suit claims that the car, which was driven by his friend Roger Rodas, who was also killed, was traveling between 63 to 71 mph when the accident happened.

Related: Paul Walker - Life in the fast lane

In a March 2014 report, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department estimated the car was going between 80 and 93 mph. Investigators ruled the cause of the crash was that it was traveling at an unsafe speed on the road, which had a 45 mph speed limit. The sheriff's investigators found nothing mechanically wrong with the car and noted it had an after-market exhaust system to allow it to go faster.

Porsche, part of Volkswagen AG (VLKAY), did not respond to a request for comment on the latest suit.

In response to the suit by Walker's daughter, Porsche filed a motion blaming Walker and Rodas for their deaths.

The automaker said Walker was a "knowledgeable and sophisticated user" of the car and knew of the perils, risks and dangers of riding in it. Porsche charged that the car itself was "abused and altered," as well as improperly maintained, after it was sold.

Comments

The Sphere

Photograph by Elena Saavedra Buckley. Once when I was about twelve I was walking down the dead-end road in Albuquerque where I grew up, around twilight with a friend. Far beyond the end of the road was a mountain range, and at that time of evening it flattened into a matte indigo wash, like a mural. While kicking down the asphalt we saw a small bright light appear at the top of the peaks, near where we knew radio towers to occasionally emit flashes of red. But this glare, blinding and colorless, grew at an alarming rate. It looked like a single floodlight and then a tight swarm beginning to leak over the edge of the summit. My friend and I became frightened, and as the light poured from the crest, our murmurs turned into screams. We stood there, clutching our heads, screaming. I knew this was the thing that was going to come and get me. It was finally going to show me the horrifying wiring that lay just behind the visible universe and that was inside of me too. And then, a couple se...

A Year in Reading: Daniel Torday

I’ve been on leave from teaching this year, so it’s been a uniquely good 12 months of reading for me, a year when I’ve read for only one reason: fun. Now when I say fun … I’m a book nerd. So I tend to take on “reading projects.” The first was to work toward becoming a Joseph Conrad completist. I’m almost there. I warmed up with critic Maya Jasanoff ’s The Dawn Watch: Conrad in a Global World , which granted me permission to remember the capacious scope of his perspective, his humanistic genius. His masterwork was hard work, but Nostromo belongs on the shelf of both the most important and most difficult of the 20th century. The Secret Agent blew the top of my head off—it’s funny and deeply relevant to our moment, about a terrorist bombing gone horribly wrong. Under Western Eyes is all I got left. 2018 isn’t over yet. But then much fun came in reading whatever, whenever. That started with a heavy dose of Denis Johnson . The new posthumous collection of his short stories, The Lar...

Dressing for Others: Lawrence of Arabia’s Sartorial Statements

Left: T. E. Lawrence; Right: Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) In the southwest Jordanian desert, among the sandstone mountains of Wadi Rum, there is a face carved into a rock. The broad cheeks and wide chin are framed by a Bedouin kuffiyeh headdress and ‘iqal, and beneath the carving, in Arabic, are the words: “Lawrence The Arab 1917.” If you are visiting Wadi Rum with a tour guide, you can expect to be brought to this carving. You may also be shown a spring where Lawrence allegedly bathed, as well as a mountain named after his autobiography, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, whose rock face has been weathered into a shape that does, from some angles, look a little like a series of pillars. I am familiar with the legend of T.E. Lawrence—fluent Arabist, British hero of the Arab Revolt of 1916, troubled lover of the Arab peoples—as well as with the ways the Jordanian tourism industry has capitalized on this legend. Nevertheless, I am still surprised when I hear someone mentio...

TOBI'S DESK

Search This Blog