mousecatcher

True, but at the end of it all, Mr. Rodas made a decision that caused this tragedy. It didn't just happen due to unfortunate circumstance.

Ed Hughes

Try and follow along here.

You're dumb and redundant statement is exactly my point: Quit judging. No doubt he could have made a better decision that day. He didn't.

The point I made is we've all made poor decisions, we just didn't have the other factors rear up and bite us in the ***.

Stephen Pitts

Sorry vman4639 -- I didn't mean to be so defensive! I had misunderstood your original comment (or overly/falsely) interpreted it. Thanks for the good summary here of the overall comments and agree. Cheers

vman4639

mousecatcher

Yes, we got lucky. I know I have been extremely lucky on many occasions. Now that I've lived through those my risk tolerance continues to go down. However, if (say) I survived an accident due to my poor decision, and my passenger died, you wouldn't catch me blaming things even in part to botts' dots or normal height sidewalk curbs. It's not like I'm criticizing Rodas for anything I wouldn't criticize myself for. It's one thing to take your own life into your hands, it's entirely another to put others at risk.

Plain and simple, Rodas f'd up. If the report had said 60MPH, ok there's some leeway. Sorry but you can't take a 15MPH (advised) corner at 100MPH in any conditions.

Thanks for the personal attack, I greatly appreciate it.

ps: *Your

Stephen Pitts

Hey guys (Ed Hughes & mouse catcher) -- sometimes we get more heated on these sites than we would if we argued in person; I certainly was way too sarcastic to vman4639 and should have been a bit more humble and understanding. Again, the arguments here are sometimes going across one another...

I have read past posts from both of you guys which been helpful to me (btw, your technical knowledge of the car is pretty impressive, mousecatcher), but anyhow I agree that the driver should take full personal responsibility. Having crashed with a passenger (on a wet race track), I certainly did that although my passenger was the one who convinced me to go on it at the time. However, I certainly wouldn't call my passenger or Paul Walker an "innocent bystander", btw. And, in exploring the details of the crash here, I just wanted to understand more about how the crash may have actually occurred. Lastly, I more than grateful for my luck with regard to my CGT...

Cheers,

Steve

Ed Hughes

I shouldn't have used the word dumb, my apologies

mousecatcher

FlatSix911

ChristianR

^thats about as tasteless and low class as i have seen in quite some time, grow up

FlatSix911

Get over it ... cross post from the Random GIF thread

ChristianR

making fun of ones death, like i said, grow up

extanker

i thought it is funny as heck and proves a moral.....play stupid games ..win stupid prizes .

tcsracing1

Wow. This thread has grown some serious legs since i have been gone…

Everybody supposedly has an opinion or some sort of expertise on the whole situation.

The feds should be recruting potential CSI on this forum…. tonnes of em here.

996tnz

For those who haven't already heard, some media are reporting that the investigation is about to publish the finding that the car had no mechanical fault and that excess speed (estimated 81-94 MPH) alone caused the crash.

They did reportedly note the car had 9 year old tires (while the owners manual recommends replacing them every 4 years). Porsche apparently found no fault with the car's systems, only noting an aftermarket exhaust and a left rear brake rotor that was below minimum thickness but not compromised.

IMHO a CGT on new tires would likely have made the turn at the chosen speed (cold, age hardened tires have much less grip) but then who's to say the driver would not have attempted to corner faster on the grippier rubber.

Reportedly roadway conditions were not a factor. At the posted speed I'm sure those 'Bott's dots' catseyes wouldn't have troubled many cars but IF those old tires crossed them at high speed they sure wouldn't have helped matters.

Hopefully the age and hardness of the tires was taken into account when calculating the speed estimate since they report the speed was worked out from the 'yaw angles' - as implied by the tire marks. Anyone who has driven on ice will know that the lower the grip, the lower the cornering speed at which a car starts sliding, and the bigger the resulting yaw so unless that was allowed for, the speed estimate would be high.

Without endorsing the article, here's it is: http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/9869...-Walkers-death