Speeds5

Appalling as fas as I'm concerned.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/justice/20...porsche-nr.cnn

Veloce Raptor

Jackpot Justice

LuigiVampa

A few years ago I slipped on some ice at my daughter's friend's house while picking her up and really f-ed up my back. Parents freaked out because they know I am a lawyer.

I finally had to tell them "its winter, there is ice and I wasn't paying attention. my fault."

Sadly, personal responsibility has gone out the window and it is always someone else's fault.

I'm certain that Paul Walker's daughter is in a better financial position than my family would be in if I dropped dead tomorrow. PW got in the car and assumed the risk.

Eric_Oz_S2

That's really terrible. There seems to be an ever increasing culture of blaming someone else when you f up. This sort of attitude is turning countries like the USA and Australia into nanny states. I do feel sorry for his daughter, but wonder what she hopes to achieve?

morsini

She hopes to hit the lottery by relying on the fact that Porsche would rather settle and pay than mount a defense. This is where the judges need to step in and throw her and her lawsuit out on their ***, because stupid should hurt!

Captain Slow

I'm sure even Paul Walker himself would disapprove

Keith Verges - Dallas

I don't know the facts or the claims - do any of you? Do each of you "assume the risk" as a passenger that the driver will not do something stupid? So every bus and plane crash is just tough noogies for all passengers?

I do think she should sue the driver; is the driver also named in the suit? I have not seen the complaint and press coverage of lawsuits is notoriously inaccurate.

I feel confident the case is tenuous but mostly due to the amount of time it took to file; makes me think it was hard to get a lawyer to take the case.

Perhaps the reactions above are informed, but all I know is that PW was a passenger and the car erupted in flames after the crash (IMO pretty unusual, I've crashed a lot of street car-based race cars pretty hard and none have ever caught fire), and there has been some word that PW could not get out of the car. I'd want to know a whole lot more details before I drew the conclusion that there was 0% problem with the vehicle design or manufacture.

John H

As a lawyer myself, I doubt finding a lawyer was the problem. I'd bet finding a credible expert to give the opinion she wants was the hard part. The other thing I wonder is, how old is the daughter? Maybe they waited until she turned 18? How old was he?

GTgears

Bus drivers and pilots have commercial licenses and you are contracting them to provide you a service. Not even comparable to getting in a car with your buddy. **** poor example really.

As for the original topic I'm disgusted that she is suing.

944Cup

Very well stated.

DTMiller

Agreed. Very easy to find a lawyer. I believe she is 17, but I could be wrong. If she is under 18 she isn't really the one suing, her guardian is calling the shots and you are in a tough spot there. If you don't sue you open yourself up to bring sued for not being diligent protecting her interests.

multi21

The facts as I know them:

1. Daughter is a minor.
2. Not unusual to wait to the last minute to file/serve complaint before statue of limitations expires.
3. Paul Walker left his daughter $25m in estate.
4. Do not know if driver was named in lawsuit, but it's common practice to go after the deepest pockets especially if the Carrera GT has had a reputation of "questionable handling" and a history of fatalities in crashes.
5. Unless you've crashed a car into a tree at triple digits in a 35-45 MPH zone, you're personal experience of accidents that didn't erupt in flames is a waste of key strokes.
6. This will be handled in a political way by VAG. Given the emissions debacle going on with the parent company, perhaps a nuisance value settlement will take place. After all, Porsche has a lot of bullets in the gun to defend this case properly given the speed of travel and age of the tires on the car.

mklaskin

The driver, who was his friend and business associate, was also killed. It was an accident due to reckless driving and there's really no one left to sue besides Porsche.

Keith Verges - Dallas

Was vehicle really traveling at over 100 mph at impact? I did not know that.

I looked at a copy of the complaint (attached) and one of the theories of liability is that the shoulder harness anchor point was attached in such a way that it "traveled with the rear engine compartment while the seat belt anchors remained with the passenger compartment," which broke Walker's ribs and pelvis and trapped him in the car for over a minute before the car caught fire. Sounds fishy to me, as I'd expect the passenger cell and all seat mounts and restraints to be integrated and any subframe for engine and rear suspension to be separate from passenger cell and designed so that the weakest part would separate the drivetrain mass from the passenger compartment, and find it doubtful Porsche would do otherwise. But if this allegation has any merit, then the design defect claim has some legs.

Other allegations are BS, such as that the car should have had PSM; well PW probably knew there was no PSM and decided to ride in the car anyway. That said, I can see an expert saying it as inexcusable and a jury agreeing.

While I'd take exception to the relevance of many of your points above, I do suspect the bad publicity will result in a sizable settlement. I am sure the Plaintiff's lawyer will try to parlay the VW/Audi emissions debacle into a "can't trust German manufacturers" sentiment in general.

Porsche911GTS'16

Based on the police report, the driver was driving recklessly at high speed. No car is safe when driven at dangerous speeds on any street, let alone a secondary street. If she is going to sue someone, she should sue the dead driver.