Entertainment

Paul Walker's Daughter Files Lawsuit — UPDATE

by Kadeen Griffiths

Almost two years after the tragic car accident that resulted in the death of Paul Walker, his 16-year-old daughter, Meadow Walker, has filed a lawsuit against Porsche. The wrongful death suit claims that the company "took safety shortcuts while loading the Porsche Carrera GT with a 605-horsepower engine capable of up to 205 mph and marketing it as a race car licensed for the road." In May 2014, Kristine Rodas filed a similar lawsuit against Porsche, one year after Walker's driver and her husband Roger Rodas was killed in the same crash. Bustle has reached out to Meadow Walker and to Porsche for comment, but have yet to hear back.

(UPDATE: Porsche spokesperson Calvin Kim said to Deadline on Tuesday. “We have not seen the lawsuit and therefore cannot comment on its specifics. As we have said before, we are saddened whenever anyone is hurt in a Porsche vehicle, but we believe the authorities’ reports in this case clearly established that this tragic crash resulted from reckless driving and excessive speed.”)

According to the L.A. Times, the lawsuit alleges multiple issues with the safety and construction of the car, including that "Porsche AG knew the Carrera GT had a history of instability but failed to add a control system to address that issue... [and] installed the model's seat belts in such a way that when the car fractured on impact, the shoulder belt anchor was yanked along with the rear engine compartment while the seat belt anchor stayed put." While law enforcement officials ruled that the crash was caused by speeding (between "80 and 93 mph"), according to E! Online, Walker's lawsuit also claims that "Paul's driver Roger Rodas may have only been going between 63 and 71 MPH when [the car] lost control."

In the original investigation into the cause of the horrific 2013 crash, mechanical problems were not found to be a potential cause for the accident. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol reached these conclusions in tandem with Porsche technicians, and, in the case of the Kristine Rodas lawsuit, Porsche denied any defects in the car model. At the time, U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez dismissed four of the five grounds for the lawsuit, forcing Rodas to amend her suit.

"It is with great reluctance that Meadow Walker has authorized the filing of this lawsuit on her own behalf and as heir to Paul Walker’s estate," Walker's attorney, Jeff Milam, said in a statement to People. "She's a teenage girl who is still dealing with the tragic loss of her father. She values her privacy and won't be making any comment. We ask everyone to respect that." The lawyer went on to add in a statement to E! News that, "Everything else we have to say is contained in the lawsuit. The bottom line is that the Porsche Carrera GT is a dangerous car. It doesn’t belong on the street. And we shouldn’t be without Paul Walker or his friend, Roger Rodas."