The death of movie star Paul Walker shocked the world and made international headlines when the car he was riding in crashed in late-2013. The car’s driver, Roger Rodas, was driving his own car, a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT at the time of the accident. Now Rodas’ widow, Kristine Rodas, is suing the automaker, claiming that the deaths of Walker and her husband was due to a failure in the car’s suspension system and a lack of necessary safety features.

1. Victim’s Wife in Paul Walker
Crash Files Suit Against Porsche
The death of movie star Paul Walker
shocked the world and made
international headlines when the car he
was riding in crashed in late-2013. The
car’s driver, Roger Rodas, was driving
his own car, a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT
at the time of the accident. Now Rodas’
widow, Kristine Rodas, is suing the
automaker, claiming that the deaths of

2. Walker and her husband was due to a
failure in the car’s suspension system
and a lack of necessary safety features.
As the Chicago Tribune reports, the suit
alleges that Rojas was piloting the
vehicle at about 55 miles per hours when
the car lost control, careened off the
road and caught fire after hitting a light
pole and three trees. Rodas was an
experienced race car driver and car
collector who owned multiple Porsches
at a given time.
According to the lawsuit, the car had
been designed to be a Le Mans racecar
before being turned into a sports car,
but did not have proper crash
protection. The suit alleges that a
properly functioning crash cage and
racing fuel cell would have prevented
the fire. It further accuses Porsche Cars
North American Inc. of being aware of

3. these problems but neglecting to correct
them or inform owners of potential
hazards.
The details of the lawsuit differ from the
findings of the Los Angeles County
Sheriff’s Department, who concluded in
late March that the crash had resulted
from “unsafe speeds” of 80-93 miles per
hour. The California Highway Patrol
also determined that the vehicle had no
preexisting conditions that would cause
the crash. That investigation noted that
the car Rodas was driving included an
aftermarket exhaust system that
“increased the engine’s horsepower.”
Head over to the Chicago Tribune to
read the original article.

4. Kristine M. Rodas’ suit claims that
Porsche “designed and manufactured
the Carrera GT defectively, causing it to
fail to perform as safely as an ordinary
consumer would expect when used in an
intended or reasonably foreseeable
manner.” She is seeking an unspecified
amount in damages, to be determined at
the time of trial. She is also seeking a
jury trial.
The findings detailed in Kristine M.
Rodas’ lawsuit differ greatly from the
findings of the official investigation by
the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department in late March. That
investigation determined that it was
“unsafe speeds” which caused the
accident. The investigation concluded
that the vehicle was traveling at 80 to 93
miles per hour at the time of the crash.
The car was traveling in a 45-mph zone.

5. The California Highway Patrol further
determined, after an investigation of the
rare vehicle's wreckage, that there were
no preexisting conditions in the vehicle
that could have caused the crash. The
only thing they noted was that an
aftermarket exhaust system that had
been added would have “increased the
engine's horsepower.”
Roger W. Rodas was survived by his wife
and two young children. Paul Walker
was filming “Fast & Furious 7” at the
time of his death. His brothers have
stepped in to help complete some of
Walker's final scenes in the film.